Patterns of Ethnic Marriage in the United States

Abstract

Using data from the November 1979 Current Population Survey on ethnic ancestry, this paper examines the strength and patterns of ethnic intermarriage in the United States, investigating some of the implications of rising intermarriage rates. After noting the infrequency of marriages across the dividing line of European/non-European ancestry, we focus on marriages between individuals of European (or American Indian) ancestry. Employing a log-linear modeling strategy, we identify several major influences on intermarriage: group size; type of ancestry, that is, mixed versus single; and degree of ethnic relatedness. These findings illuminate one key dynamic behind rising intermarriage among white ethnics. Namely, even though persons of unmixed ancestry still exhibit fairly strong tendencies to marry endogamously, a shift in the relative frequency of mixed versus unmixed ancestry is reducing the sizes of the categories with the strongest in-marriage tendencies and increasing the sizes of those with weaker such tendencies. We suggest that these findings offer a possible partial resolution of the debate over the role of ethnicity in American society.