NY Times Infographic: Who’s Marrying Whom?

Source: NY Times

The NY Times ran an interesting infographic last week showing an interesting snapshot of mixed race marriages in America, and in particular of how prevalent mixed race marriages are in Asian America. One of the interesting trends was that in the Asian American community mixed race marriages are down from 1980. For Asian Men in 2009, 104 out of every 1000 marriages are mixed race, down from 138 in 1980. For Asian Women in 2009, 234 out of every 1000 marriages are mixed race, down from 284 in 1980.

Another blogger at Asian Nation commented that the decrease in mixed marriages in the Asian American community may be due to the influx of Asian immigrants, who are more likely to marry another Asian.

The NY Times infographic is actually tied to a story about mixed race young adults and how they are increasingly identifying themselves as multi-racial (unlike for example, President Barack Obama, who self identified on the U.S. Census as black even though his parents are of different races). Stories like this one always make me wonder how my own 5 year old daughter is going to self-identify as she gets older, as she’s half-Asian and half-white. I can only hope she embraces both of her cultural identities as many of these young adults have.