Latinos lead in "marrying out"

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A recent Pew report on marriage stats has found that interracial and interethnic marriages are at an all time high – 15.1%.  Of the 275,500 new marriages in this category, the largest group by far were marriages between Latinos and Caucasians – 43%. This is no doubt due to the vast increase in United States’ Latino population over the past few decades, and not (solely) to our advanced levels of sexy.

Colorlines gives us some other interesting stats.

  • Of the 275,500 new interracial or interethnic marriages in 2010, 43 percent are white/Latino couples, the most common type of intermarriage couple.
  • Native-born Latino newlyweds are more than twice as likely as foreign-born Latino newlyweds to marry out——36 percent versus 14 percent.
  • About one-in-five (19 percent) of all newlyweds in New Mexico between 2008 and 2010 were white/Latino couples, a share higher than any other state. States with the next highest shares of newlywed white/Latino couples were Arizona (12 percent) and Nevada (11 percent).
  • Between 2008-2010 white male newlyweds who married Asian, Latino or black spouses had higher combined earnings than did white male newlyweds who married a white spouse.
  • Just as intermarriage has become more common, public attitudes have become more accepting. Nearly half (48 percent) of Latino, and 43 percent of Americans overall, say that more people of different races marrying each other has been a change for the better in our society, while only about one-in-ten of both groups think it is a change for the worse.

Interesting stats on Latinos’ acceptance into the mainstream. Here’s looking at you, Arizona.

Thoughts?