Marriage in Black America
It is widely accepted that black women are least likely to marry than any other women in America. But after viewing the true data, we can see that although fewer black women are “now married”, more black women marry at least once than black men. In 2010 48.8% of black men are “never married” compared to 45.2% of black women which is up from 44% in 2008 and 42,7% in 2005. It is also believed that a large percentage of Black men marry White women. This is cited as the cause of low marriage rates among Black women.
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This however is only partially true. While Black men marry white women at twice the rate of Black women, only 7% of married Black men had White (non-Hispanic) spouses in 2014. About 14% percent of African American men married non-Black or Hispanic women in 2014. It is Asian women who have the highest rates of intermarriage which is twice that of Black men. Black women were the least likely to marry non-Black or Hispanic men at only 6% in 2014, and only 4/% were married to White men.
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In 2012 The U.S Census Bureau released a report that studied the history of marriage in the United States. They discovered some startling statistics when calculating marriage by race. They found that African Americans age 35 and older were more likely to be married than White Americans from 1890 until sometime around the 1960s. Not only did they swap places during the 60s but in 1980 the number of NEVER married African Americans began a staggering climb from about 10% to more than 25% by 2010 while the percentage for White women remained under 10% and just over 10% for White men. The first two charts below are charts included in the report only the headings have been altered by BlackDemographics.com to outline these findings.
The third chart illustrates how closely the marriage graph for Black men aligns with the incarceration numbers which also experienced an abnormal climb beginning in 1980. This does not prove causation however it shows that they are related due to the assumption that men in prison are less likely to marry.
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