Census data suggests increased acceptance of being multiracial

Census data suggests increased acceptance of being multiracial

The Daily Texan
University of Texas, Austin
2011-04-01

Shamoyita DasGupta, Daily Texan Staff

More Americans than ever before identify as multiracial, according to the 2010 census.
 
Of the 9 million people who listed themselves as more than one race, 4.2 million are children. The percentage rose from 2.4 percent to 2.9 percent in the last 10 years.
 
In Texas, the number increased from 514,633 in 2000 to 679,001 in 2010, with the majority of those people identifying themselves as being white and any other race, said Jenna Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Dallas region of the U.S. Census Bureau.
 
The significant increase is not particularly surprising to those who study population trends, said sociology professor Ronald Angel.  “There’s more intermarriage,” he said. “[Being multiracial] just seems to be more accepted, just from the data.”
 
Those who were more likely to list themselves as being of more than one race tended to be Native Hawaiians, American Indians and Pacific Islanders, while blacks and whites were less likely to report being multiracial, according to The New York Times

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