More than nine in 10 Americans (94%) now approve of interracial marriage, according to the latest Gallup Poll on the subject. This is up from 87% in 2013. Only 4% of people approved of marriage between whites and Blacks, when Gallup first asked the question in 1958.
The U.S. Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case, and a year later a Gallup Poll found that only 20% approved. Support for interracial marriage increased in each subsequent decade, with a majority first approving of it in 1997.
Non-white Americans have traditionally viewed interracial marriage more favorably than white Americans, but that gap has now nearly closed.
While younger adults have consistently been more relaxed about interracial marriages than older Americans, the age gap has shrunk also.
Americans in the south were historically more anti-interracial marriages, but today regional differences in attitudes have largely disappeared. People in the west are the most approving of interracial marriage. Opposition to interracial marriage still exists, according to Gallup, but it is small.
Americans' positive views of interracial marriage are in line with their attitudes toward voting for a Black candidate. While doing so was rare in the 1950s, nearly all Americans say they would be willing to vote for a Black person today.
Solid majorities (70%) now support same-sex marriage, and a larger majority than in the past view divorce as morally acceptable, according to Gallup.
The survey on interracial marriage was conducted July 6 to 21, with a random sample of 1,007 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
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