Fertility by race, origin & income

Stock of currently married couples, not newlyweds. Pew’s 2015 newlywed rates (17% overall) remain the best published by-group flow estimates; 2020 ACS race coding changes create a break in microdata trends. For comparison, Pew’s 2015 newlywed rate was 17% (stock of all married: 10%).

NFHS-5 currently married women. Pew finds 99% report a same-religion spouse. Inter-caste rose from 10.4% (1981–85) to 14.8% (2016–20). Inter-caste is far more common than interfaith. Pew’s survey finds 99% of married Indians report a same-religion spouse (attitudinal/survey self-report). NFHS-5 couple file yields ~3% inter-religious.

Slow rise over four decades of marriage cohorts (NFHS analyses).

Among ethnic minorities, interethnic marriage reached 25.61% in 2020 (up from 21.47% in 2010). National share of all marriages that are interethnic is still low because Han are ~91% of the population. National rates look low because Han are >90% of the population; among ethnic minorities the interethnic rate is much higher and rising. Over 80% of minority interethnic marriages are with Han.

2020 census: minorities born in the 1990s ~35% interethnic; bachelor’s ~50%, graduate ~70%. Group rates below are 2010 census (Wang et al.).

Racial categories are White, Brown (parda), Black, and others — more fluid than U.S. race. Interracial union shares have been roughly stable near one-third since the early 2000s after rising through the late 20th century.

Nationality of spouses, not ethnicity. Peak international share was mid-2000s (~5–6%); COVID years compressed absolute counts; 2023 share of marriages with at least one foreign spouse is about 3.8% (excluding two-foreigner couples from the ‘international with Japanese’ total if preferred — here we report both Japanese nationals vs any foreign involvement).

Share who ever formed a mixed union with a native Dane by age 40 (or censoring). Religion of origin country is the strongest predictor; Turkish, Pakistani and Somali origins remain highly endogamous.

Europe average 8.4% of married persons (2008–2010). Europe-wide average ~8.4% of married persons (about one in twelve). This is a birthplace mix, not ethnicity or religion. High values in Switzerland and Latvia partly reflect large foreign-born stocks; Romania and Bulgaria sit near zero. OECD (2017) also reports newlywed intermarriage shares around 14% in France, 12% in Germany and the U.S., and 9% in Italy (2015).

Citizenship, birthplace, and migrant-background definitions differ by country. Netherlands and Nordic figures are origin-group endogamy among marrying persons; Germany/Italy/Spain/France/Belgium/Switzerland/Portugal are shares of registered marriages involving a foreign national (or different nationality group).

Among people marrying in 2021. ‘Same origin’ combines a co-ethnic partner already in the Netherlands and a migration marriage. Second-generation Turkish and Moroccan newlyweds remain ~80% endogamous; Caribbean and Indonesian origins marry Dutch-background partners far more often.

Among married second-generation individuals: same-origin partners are far more common in Norway than Sweden; majority-background spouses are more common in Sweden. Norway SSB: 76% of Norwegian-born to immigrant parents married someone with immigrant background; 51% same country of origin.

Overall 9% in 2011 (was 7% in 2001). Overall 9% of people in couples were in an inter-ethnic relationship in 2011 (up from 7% in 2001). White British rates are low partly because the group is large. South Asian groups remain highly endogamous in marriage; cohabiting rates are much higher for the same groups. Census 2021 reports 5.7% of multi-person households had ethnic groups that differ within partnerships (a household, not person, measure).

About 20% of the world lives in communities that prefer kin marriage. Arab populations often sit in the 20–50% of marriages range. Bars use midpoints of published survey ranges (or preferred national estimates where noted).

In 2015, 17% of all U.S. newlyweds intermarried (10% of all currently married people). Endogamy = 100 − exogamy for the same universe.

These are newlywed rates, not the stock of all currently married couples (10% of all married people were intermarried in 2015). Endogamy here is simply 100 minus the intermarriage rate for the same universe. Definitions differ from ancestry-specific ACS tables (e.g. Iranian diaspora endogamy).

Religious intermarriage, not racial intermarriage. Rates are for Jewish individuals, not couples (a couples rate is higher because two Jews who marry each other count as one couple). Orthodox Jews barely intermarry; non-Orthodox recent marriages are mostly intermarried.

Among Jews married in 2010–2020, 61% have a non-Jewish spouse; among non-Orthodox Jews in that window, 72%.

The generational gap is large: first-generation endogamy is about 60% (exogamy ~40%); second-generation endogamy falls to about 20% (exogamy ~80%). The most common spouse category for the second generation is non-Hispanic White. Attitudinal surveys from the 1990s (e.g. Chaichian 1997) found much lower approval of exogamy than today’s behaviour implies.

Foreign-born rates only — U.S.-born Asians intermarry far more (Pew: 46% of U.S.-born Asian newlyweds in 2015). Endogamy here is co-ethnic marriage, stricter than “any Asian spouse.” Across all foreign-born Asian householders, 88.8% married co-ethnics, 8.0% married non-Asians, and 3.3% married another Asian ethnicity.