Americans approval of interracial marriage hits all time high of 94 percent: Gallup

Americans’ approval of interracial marriage has hit an overwhelming, all-time high, according to a new Gallup poll released Friday. 

According to survey results, 94 percent of U.S. adults approve of interracial marriage, which Gallup specifies as marriage between white and Black people.

The figures are up 7 percentage points from polling in 2013.

Gallup first began polling Americans on the question in 1958, when the country was nearly universally opposed to interracial marriage. At the time, just 4 percent of U.S. adults approved.

After the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case, the approval rating increased to 20 percent. Support continued to grow gradually, finally reaching the majority level in 1997 when support jumped from 48 percent to 64 percent, Gallup noted.

Americans of color have historically approved of interracial marriage in greater numbers than white Americans. From 1968 to 2013, Gallup found double-digit gaps in approval between white and nonwhite adults.

However, the opinion gap between Americans of color and white Americans has narrowed over time. The most recent results showed that the gap has closed. Today, 93 percent of white Americans approve of interracial marriage compared to 96 percent of nonwhite Americans. 

Different age groups have also shown varying results. In the past, younger people were more likely to approve of interracial marriage than older people. However, this gap in opinion has also shrunk in recent years, with Americans of all age groups more supportive of interracial marriage than they were in the past.

In 1991, just 27 percent of adults over 50 approved of interracial marriage. Now, that number is at 91 percent.

Additionally, those from different regions of the U.S. have also shown varying results throughout the past half a century. Today, 94 percent of Americans in the East, 93 percent of Americans in the Midwest and South and 97 percent in the West approve of interracial marriage. 

In 1991, 33 percent of Americans in the South approved of interracial marriage, 54 percent of Americans approved in the East and 50 and 60 approved in the Midwest and West respectively.