Interracial marriage is a marriage between two people who belong to different races or ethnic groups. In the past, such marriages were not allowed in some U.S. states, Nazi Germany, and apartheid-era South Africa. These laws were called miscegenation, a term meaning "mixing of different races." The word "miscegenation" first appeared in a fake pamphlet titled Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro, published in 1864. Even in 1960, interracial marriage was still illegal in 31 U.S. states.
In 1967, interracial marriage became legal in all U.S. states. This change happened after the Supreme Court of the United States, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ruled in the case Loving v. Virginia. The court decided that laws banning interracial marriage, like Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law, broke the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This clause was added to the Constitution in 1868.
Legality
The United Nations' "Universal Declaration of Human Rights," approved in 1948, states that people have the right to marry "without any limitation due to race, nationality, or religion." This document has been accepted by nearly all countries worldwide. However, the United Nations' declaration is not legally enforceable, so it does not always reflect how countries treat interracial marriage. In the United States, interracial marriage was not allowed in all states until the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia in 1967, which made it legal in all 50 states.
A 2013 Gallup poll showed that 11% of Americans disapproved of interracial marriage, compared to 94% in 1958. In 1958, actor Sammy Davis Jr. briefly married a Black woman to avoid violence after his relationship with a white actress, Kim Novak, caused controversy. In 1963, former President Harry S. Truman said he did not believe interracial marriage would become common in the United States, stating, "Would you want your daughter to marry a Negro? She won't love someone who isn't her color."
Over time, African Americans have shown higher approval of interracial marriage than white Americans. In 2013, 96% of Black Americans supported it, while 84% of white Americans did. By 2021, 94% of U.S. adults approved of interracial marriage. In the past, some areas, such as Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa, and many U.S. states before 1967, had laws banning or limiting interracial marriage and relationships.
Complications
In 2008, Jenifer Bratter and Rosalind King, working with the Education Resources Information Center, studied if interracial marriages in the U.S. had higher divorce rates. They found that, overall, interracial couples had higher divorce rates, especially those who married in the late 1980s. In 2009, Yuanting Zhang and Jennifer Van Hook found similar results. One key finding was that gender affects divorce risk. Marriages with a White woman had higher divorce rates than those with Asian or Black women. Marriages with Black women had lower divorce rates than non-interracial marriages.
Stella Ting-Toomey and Tenzin Dorjee suggested that White women in interracial marriages might face less family support. They said non-White in-laws sometimes thought White women were not ready to raise mixed-race children because they lacked experience with minority life in the U.S. In 2018, Jennifer Bratter and Ellen Whitehead found that White women with mixed-race children received less family support than non-White women with similar children.
A study found that White women married to Black men reported more public discrimination, like poor restaurant service or being treated unfairly by police, compared to other interracial couples. These experiences might increase the risk of divorce. A 2008 study found lower divorce rates in marriages between Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites. But a 2011 study found higher divorce rates in these same marriages. Gender also affected divorce rates, with marriages between White women and Hispanic men having the highest risk.
Benefits
A benefit of marriages between people of different races is that they create more chances for positive interactions between people of different races. Studies show that having these positive interactions can reduce prejudice and discrimination against people from other racial groups. For example, a study by Pettigrew and Tropp found that friendships between people from different groups helped reduce prejudice. This idea is explained by the "Contact Hypothesis," which suggests that when people from different groups interact in the right way, it can reduce negative feelings between groups. This contact does not need to be direct; it can also happen indirectly, such as when someone hears about a friend of a friend having a positive interaction. For instance, Wright and others found that Caucasians who knew someone who had a friend from a different race had more positive views of people from other races, even if they did not have direct contact themselves.
In an experiment, two groups were made to believe they were formed based on shared traits. After creating tension between the groups, participants watched a member of their own group (a person pretending to be a participant) work with someone from the other group. The participants saw the person act differently depending on the situation. In one situation, the person acted like close friends. In another, they were polite but not friendly. In a third, they acted like enemies. People who saw the friendly interaction later had more positive opinions about the other group, including seeing them as more intelligent and less rigid. This shows that simply seeing a person from one's own group act kindly toward someone from another group can improve attitudes toward that group. This is a benefit of interracial marriages because they often bring families and friends of the married couple together, creating opportunities for people to form relationships. This diversity can help family members communicate better and understand different perspectives.
Being multiracial can have both challenges and benefits. Some research suggests that people with mixed racial backgrounds are sometimes seen as more attractive than those with only one racial background. However, this idea has been questioned because it may not consider how culture and society influence what is considered attractive. Critics say that using the idea of "heterosis," which suggests that genetic diversity improves physical traits, is not helpful because race is not a clear biological category. While some earlier studies found that mixed-race faces were rated as more attractive, later research shows that attractiveness depends on many factors, including culture and time, not just genetics.
Multiracial people also face challenges in understanding their identity. A recent survey found that one-fifth of multiracial individuals feel pressure to choose one racial identity, and one-quarter struggle with confusion about their identity. This can lead to discrimination from multiple groups. For example, someone with a Black and White parent might feel they are not accepted fully by either group. However, some multiracial people report benefits from their identity, such as higher self-esteem and better social connections. The ability to move between different groups can also help people solve problems creatively by considering different perspectives.
Americas
The first marriage between people of different races in the area that later became the United States happened in 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. Luisa de Abrego, a free Black woman, married Miguel Rodriguez, a Spanish man from Segovia.
In 1691, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law that made interracial marriage illegal. This law was based on beliefs in racial purity and white supremacy. In an 1858 speech, Abraham Lincoln said he did not support allowing Black people to vote, serve on juries, hold office, or marry white people. By the late 1800s, 38 U.S. states had laws that banned interracial marriage. Before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, most white evangelical Christians in the Southern United States believed that racial segregation in marriage was God’s plan and that legal recognition of interracial couples went against biblical teachings.
Interracial marriage became legal in all U.S. states after the 1967 Supreme Court decision, which said anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Many states had already made interracial marriage legal before this. These laws helped shape how people saw race and reinforced racial hierarchies. The United States has many racial and ethnic groups, and interracial marriage is common among many of them. From 1970 to 2010, the percentage of married couples who were interracial increased from 2% to 8.4%. Between 2010 and 2019, the proportion of new marriages that were interracial rose from 11% to 19%.
According to a 2013 Pew Research Center analysis of census data, 12% of newlyweds married someone of a different race. This number does not include marriages between Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Most Americans support interracial marriage, even in their own families. About six out of ten people said they would be fine if a family member married someone from a different major race or ethnic group.
Some racial groups are more likely to marry someone of a different race than others. In 2013, 58% of Native Americans, 28% of Asian Americans, 19% of African Americans, and 7% of White Americans married someone of a different race. Among African Americans, men were more likely than women to marry outside their race. In 2013, 25% of Black men married someone who was not Black, while only 12% of Black women did. For Asian Americans, women were more likely than men to marry outside their race. In 2013, 37% of Asian women married someone who was not Asian, compared to 16% of Asian men. Native Americans had the highest rate of interracial marriage among single-race groups. In this group, 61% of women married outside their race, compared to 54% of men.
Although anti-miscegenation laws were removed in 1967, social stigma around Black interracial marriages still exists today, though less than before. Research from 1990 showed that Black Americans intermarried less than other non-White groups. In 2010, only 17.1% of Black Americans married someone of a different race. Black interracial marriages often face challenges related to racism and perceptions of inappropriateness. There is also a gender gap in Black interracial marriages. In 2008, 22% of Black men married outside their race, while only 9% of Black women did. This made Black individuals the least likely of any race or gender to marry outside their race or to marry at all.
From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, many Black people and Mexican Americans married each other in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, especially in Cameron and Hidalgo counties. In Cameron County, 38% of Black people were married to someone of a different race, while in Hidalgo County, 72% of Black people were married to someone of a different race.
(Note: The following paragraphs include some unclear or incomplete information due to a lack of citations or context.) Most Chinese immigrants to the United States were from the Cantonese region of Taishan. Anti-miscegenation laws in many states prevented Chinese men from marrying non-Asian women. After the Emancipation Proclamation, many intermarriages were not recorded. Historically, Chinese American men married African American women in high numbers because there were few Chinese American women in the United States. After the Emancipation Proclamation, many Chinese Americans moved to Southern states like Arkansas to work on plantations. In 1880, the U.S. census in Louisiana counted 57% of Chinese men married to Black women and 43% married to white women. Between 20% and 30% of Chinese men in Mississippi married Black women before 1940. A genetic study of 199 African American males found one had East Asian ancestry (0.5%). Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. noted that NASA astronaut Mae Jemison has significant East Asian genetic admixture, possibly from intermarriage between Chinese workers and Black or African American slaves or former slaves in the 19th century. In the mid-1850s, 70 to 150 Chinese lived in New York City, and 11 married Irish women. In 1906, the New York Times reported that 300 Irish American women married Chinese men in New York, with many more cohabiting. In 1900, research estimated that one in 20 Chinese men married white women. In the 1960s, census data showed 3,500 Chinese men married to white women and 2,900 Chinese women married to white men. It also showed 300 Chinese men married to Black women and 100 Black men married to Chinese women.
The 1960 census showed 51,000 Black-white couples, with Black men and white women being slightly more common (26,000) than Black women and white men (25,000). Interracial marriages involving Asian and Native American couples were most common. White women most often married Filipino men (12,000), followed by Native American men (11,200), Japanese men (3,500), and Chinese men (3,500). White men most often married Japanese women (21,700), Native American women (17,500), Filipino women (4,50
Africa and the Middle East
Interracial marriage was common in the Arab world during the Arab slave trade, which lasted from the Middle Ages through the early modern period. Many enslaved people came from regions like sub-Saharan Africa (especially the Zanj), the North Caucasus, Central Asia (mainly Tatars), and parts of Europe (including Slavs from Serbia, Spain, France, and Italy). These people were brought to the Arab world through trade routes such as the Trans-Saharan, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean slave trades from Africa; the Bukhara slave trade from Central Asia; and the Prague, Venetian, Balkan, and Black Sea slave trades from Europe. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Barbary pirates from North Africa captured and enslaved about 1.25 million people from Western Europe and North America through the Barbary slave trade.
From AD 839, Viking warriors who worked for the Byzantine Empire, such as Harald Sigurdsson, fought in North Africa, Jerusalem, and other Middle Eastern regions during the Byzantine-Arab Wars. These Vikings sometimes married local people as part of their military service or after settling in the region. Archaeological evidence shows that Vikings had contact with Baghdad, the capital of the Islamic Empire at the time. Vikings traveled along the Volga trade route, trading goods like furs, tusks, and female slaves, who were often more valuable than male slaves during this period. They also supplied European slaves, known as Saqaliba, to the Abbasid Caliphate through the Khazar and Volga Bulgarian slave trades. These slaves were often captured during wars or from European coasts and sold to traders in al-Andalus and Sicily.
In some cases, foreign non-Muslim women who were enslaved became the wives of their enslavers. Intermarriage was accepted in Arab society, but only if the husband was Muslim. This theme appeared often in medieval Arabic and Persian literature. For example, the Persian poet Nizami married a Central Asian Kipchak slave girl and wrote The Seven Beauties (1196), a story about a prince who marries seven foreign princesses from different regions. Another example is the 12th-century Arabic tale Bayad wa Riyad, which tells the story of an Iberian girl and a man from Damascus. The Arabian Nights story The Ebony Horse involves a Persian prince rescuing a princess from the Byzantine Emperor, who also wants to marry her.
At times, marriages had major political effects. One example is the marriage of As-Salih Ayyub, the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt and Syria, to Shajar al-Durr, a Turkic slave from Central Asia. After her husband died, she became the ruler of Egypt and the first Mamluk leader. Her rule ended the Ayyubid dynasty and began the Mamluk era, during which former slaves often ruled Egypt and nearby regions.
In Algeria, some women have married non-Muslim Chinese and Thai men in customary marriages, which are not officially recognized by the government. For example, one Algerian woman had three children with a Chinese man, but the government questioned whether her husband had converted to Islam. Algeria has many single women, and the government requires proof of conversion to Islam before recognizing these marriages. Some Algerian women are drawn to Chinese men because of their financial resources, while the men may avoid China’s one-child policy by having children with Algerian women. Journalists in Algeria have raised concerns about whether Chinese husbands truly commit to Islam for these marriages.
Africa has a long history of racial mixing, including relationships between Arabs, Europeans, and Black Africans. Arabs played a major role in the African slave trade, and many enslaved Africans were women who were used as sexual slaves or married to Arab men. In former Portuguese colonies like Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde, racial mixing between Portuguese and Black Africans was common, especially in Cape Verde, where most people are of mixed heritage.
In parts of Africa, Chinese workers have married Black African women. These men were often employed to build railways and other projects, and very few Chinese women came to Africa. In places like Réunion and Madagascar, Chinese men from Cantonese backgrounds have married African women. Many Chinese men in countries like Angola, South Africa, Gabon, Tanzania, and Ethiopia have married Black African women and had children with them.
In South Africa, a large mixed-race population called Coloureds exists, mostly from European and African unions. The term Coloured is also used in Namibia to describe people with mixed Khoisan, Black, and White heritage. The Basters, a separate group, are sometimes considered part of the Coloured population. Some Xhosa people claim ancestry from white individuals, such as the ImiDushane royal family, which traces its roots to a white orphan adopted by a Xhosa chief.
Interracial marriage was banned under apartheid in South Africa, which caused problems for Sir Seretse Khama, a Motswana leader, and his wife Ruth Williams Khama, who faced opposition despite not being South African. Today, many interracial couples are prominent in Southern Africa, such as Mmusi Maimane (a black politician), Nyaniso Dzedze (a black actor) and his German wife, and Bryan Habana (a Coloured rugby player) and his white wife.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese men in Mauritius married Indian women because there were few Chinese women on the island. When Chinese immigrants first arrived, they avoided marrying local women, but eventually, they integrated with the Creole and Indian populations. The 1921 census in Mauritius recorded these marriages.
Oceania
In New Zealand, marriages between people of different ethnic backgrounds have generally been accepted. A study from 2006 found that, on average, Māori people have about 43% European ancestry, and this percentage is increasing. However, the idea of being "mixed-race" has not been common. An informal rule, similar to the one-drop rule, is often used for Māori. This rule suggests that even a small amount of Māori ancestry is enough for someone to be considered Māori.
In Australia, historical records show that Aboriginal Australian women married men of European, Asian, and African backgrounds during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many Chinese immigrant men and other Asian men moved to Australia and married Aboriginal Australian women. In 1913, Walter Baldwin Spencer, an anthropologist and temporary Chief Protector, opposed these marriages and showed bias against the mixing of Aboriginal women and Asian men, claiming that such relationships caused "rapid degeneration of the native."
Most early Chinese-Australian people came from Guangzhou and Taishan in China, with some from Fujian, during the goldrush of the 1850s. Marriage records show that between the 1850s and the start of the 20th century, about 2,000 legal marriages occurred between white women and Chinese men in Australia's eastern colonies. Similar numbers of de facto relationships (living together without marriage) likely existed. Protests against Chinese men marrying white women became common. In late 1878, 181 marriages were recorded between European women and Chinese men, and 171 couples lived together without marriage, resulting in 586 children.
Asia
Genetic studies show that all Central Asian ethnic groups share a mix of genetic traits from East Eurasian and West Eurasian populations.
Marriages between Turkic, European, and Central Asian groups in Kazakhstan are uncommon but growing. The most frequent marriages are between Kazakh and Volga Tatar people. Most intermarriages involve Kazakh men, as Muslim traditions often favor men in marriage. For example, 1% of marriages involved Russians, Tatars, and Kazakhs (792 between Russians and Tatars, 561 between Kazakhs and Tatars, and 212 between Kazakhs and Russians). Among Kazakh men who married Russians or Tatars, 701 did so, compared to only 72 Kazakh women. Among Kirgiz men in Uzbekistan who married non-Kirgiz women, 9.6% married Russians, 25.6% married Uzbeks, and 34.3% married Tatars. Among Kazakh men in Uzbekistan, 4.4% married Russians.
Genetic analysis of the Hazaras shows they have partial Mongol ancestry. Mongols and Turco-Mongols mixed with the local Iranian population, creating a distinct group. Mongols settled in what is now Afghanistan and married native Persian-speaking people. Later, Chagatai Mongols and other Mongolic groups from Central Asia arrived and married local Persian-speaking people, forming another distinct group. One study found Sub-Saharan African genetic traits in both the paternal and maternal ancestry of Hazaras. Among Hazaras, 7.5% have African maternal DNA group L, and 5.1% have African paternal DNA group B. The time and origin of this mixing are unknown, but it is believed to have happened during the slave trades in Afghanistan.
Ethnic Russians first arrived in large numbers in Manchuria in the 1890s as colonists. At the same time, marriages between Russian women and Han Chinese men began. The descendants of these marriages live in towns and villages near the Ergun River in Inner Mongolia, such as Shiwei and Enhe. Marriages between Chinese women and Russian men were rare, unlike the pattern seen in European colonies where men often married local women. These unions were also uncommon in cities like Harbin, where both groups had prejudice against mixed marriages.
Many Tanka women had children with foreign men. In 1889, Ernest John Eitel noted that Eurasian girls, the children of Tanka women and foreign men, were often raised respectfully and married to Hong Kong Chinese men. Some believe many Hong Kong-born Eurasians became part of Hong Kong society by marrying Cantonese people. Bruce Lee, a famous martial artist, was born to a Cantonese father and a Eurasian mother. Some European women also married Cantonese men, such as Nancy Kwan, a Hollywood actress born to a Cantonese architect, and Marquita Scott, a model of English and Scottish ancestry.
Ernest John Eitel claimed that most Eurasians in Hong Kong were descended from European men and Tanka women. This idea was supported by some researchers who noted that Tanka women had more freedom to marry foreigners than Cantonese women, as they were not bound by Confucian traditions. However, Lethbridge called this a "myth" created by biased Cantonese people. Carl Smith’s study in the 1960s suggested that Tanka women faced restrictions in traditional Chinese society, making them more likely to marry Europeans.
Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew and Katharine Caroline Bushnell wrote about Tanka women in Hong Kong, who were often involved in prostitution for foreign sailors. Tanka women were considered "outcasts" and were separated from the Cantonese community. They were nicknamed "salt water girls" for their work as prostitutes.
South Asians lived in Hong Kong during the colonial period, before India and Pakistan became separate nations. Many worked as police or army officers. About 25,000 Muslims in Hong Kong have roots in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Around half of them are from families that married local women, mostly of Tanka origin.
The early Macanese people in Macau were formed from Portuguese men and women from Malay, Japanese, Indian, and other backgrounds. Portuguese settlers encouraged Chinese migration to Macau, and most Macanese people were the result of marriages between Portuguese and Chinese. Chinese women rarely married Portuguese men, as Portuguese men often married women from Goan, Ceylonese, Indochinese, Malay, or Japanese backgrounds. Some Chinese became Macanese by converting to Catholicism, even without Portuguese ancestry. Many early Macanese marriages involved Portuguese men and Tanka women, who were considered the lowest class in China. High-class Chinese women avoided marrying foreigners, but some Cantonese men married Portuguese women. Over time, some Macanese people became similar to Chinese or Portuguese people. Because most migrants to Macau were Cantonese, the region became a culturally Cantonese-speaking society. In the 1980s, Macanese and Portuguese women began marrying men who identified as Chinese.
Stories about Tanka women and Portuguese men in Macau were written in literature, such as "A-Chan, A Tancareira" by Henrique de Senna Fernandes. After Macau was handed over to China in 1999, many Macanese moved abroad. Those who stayed in Macau often married local Cantonese men, and many Macanese now have Cantonese paternal heritage. There are 25,000–46,000 Macanese people worldwide, with only 5,000–8,000 living in Macau. Most live in America, Latin America, and Portugal. Unlike Macanese in Macau, who are usually of Chinese and Portuguese heritage, many Macanese abroad have mixed ancestry beyond just Chinese and Portuguese.
Europe
In 1918, official records showed that 250 Vietnamese men and French women married legally. However, 1,363 couples lived together without the approval of French parents or authorities.
During World War I, many soldiers from British India, French Africa, and 20,000 laborers from South Africa worked in France. Hundreds of relationships formed between French women and soldiers from Africa and India. French authorities allowed Muslim soldiers to marry French women based on Islamic law, which permits marriage between Muslim men and Christian women. However, Hindu soldiers faced restrictions due to the Indian caste system.
Historical research suggests that French society has shown less conflict over interracial marriage compared to other nations. Studies of French films indicate that conflicts about interracial marriage are rarely shown, though it is unclear if this reflects true acceptance or an attempt to avoid discussing the issue.
Today, mixed marriages in France are increasing. A study by INSEE (2019–2020) found that 27% of immigrants married someone without a migration background, while 66% of second-generation descendants married non-immigrants. Among third-generation immigrants under 60, nine out of ten have only one or two immigrant grandparents, showing high levels of integration.
In the early 20th century, German colonies in Africa and the South Seas banned marriages between Europeans and non-European natives. Though a law allowing inclusive marriage was debated in 1912, it was not passed due to the start of World War I.
The United States’ race laws, including anti-miscegenation rules, influenced Nazi Germany. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 banned relationships between Germans and Jews, and later, harsh rules separated Germans from Slavs.
In Iberia, interracial marriage occurred during the Islamic period (8th–14th centuries) and in the early modern era, when North Africans lived in Portugal and southern Spain.
Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre noted that miscegenation was common in Portuguese colonies, supported by the Portuguese court to grow populations. Mixed marriages were widespread in former colonies like Brazil, Cape Verde, and Mozambique. Portuguese settlers sometimes freed African slaves to marry them, granting their children Portuguese citizenship.
Most Icelanders are descendants of Norwegian settlers and Celtic people from Ireland and Scotland. DNA studies show that 66% of male settlers were Norse, while 60% of females were Celtic.
In southern Italy, under Islamic rule (e.g., the Emirate of Sicily), Muslim men could marry Christian or Jewish women. After the Norman conquest, Muslims in Sicily were called "Moors" and faced persecution, with many expelled by 1239.
Italian city-states sometimes participated in the Arab slave trade, including trading slaves with Moorish and Italian traders. Some scholars suggest Leonardo da Vinci’s mother may have been a Middle Eastern slave.
In Malta, Arabs and Italians from Sicily and Calabria married local people, creating the Maltese population and language, which evolved from Siculo-Arabic.
Britain has a long history of interethnic marriage, including among Celts, Romans, Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons. In the 15th century, Romani people arrived and intermarried with locals, forming the Romanichal community. In the 19th century, British officers in India brought Indian spouses to Britain. From the 1890s, Chinese men in Liverpool married British women, creating a Eurasian Chinese population. During World War II, Chinese seamen from Shanghai and Canton married British women, with about 300 men recorded as married to British women.
After World War I, Britain had more women than men, leading to increased marriages with sailors from other countries.