What are the most common mixed-race combinations in the US 2020 census?
Executive summary
The 2020 Census recorded a dramatic rise in people reporting two or more races — 33.8 million (10.2% of the population) when Hispanics are included, and 13.5 million when excluding Hispanics — a 276% increase from 2010 largely driven by both reporting changes and demographic shifts [1] [2] [3]. The single most common mixed-race pairing was White and “Some Other Race” (about 19.3 million), followed by White + American Indian and Alaska Native (~4 million), White + Black or African American (~3.1 million), White + Asian (~2.7 million), and Black + Some Other Race (~1 million) [4] [1] [5].
1. The headline numbers: who is mixed-race and how many are there
The Census Bureau’s 2020 count put the Two or More Races population at roughly 33.8 million people, or 10.2% of the U.S. total when Hispanic ethnicity is included, reflecting a sharp rise from roughly 9 million in 2010 [1] [2]. The bureau cautions that much of the apparent jump stems from improved race and Hispanic questions and coding changes — meaning the increase is a mix of real demographic shifts and measurement effects, not a straightforward doubling or tripling of mixed‑race births alone [3] [6].
2. The most common pairings: a White-centered landscape
Across the detailed 2020 race combinations the dominant pattern is White plus another category: White + Some Other Race leads by a wide margin at about 19.3 million people, followed by White + American Indian and Alaska Native (~4 million), White + Black or African American (~3.1 million), and White + Asian (~2.7 million) [4] [5]. Non‑White pairings are smaller in absolute terms, with Black + Some Other Race around 1 million — underscoring that most multiracial identification in 2020 involved at least one respondent selecting White as one component [4] [5].
3. Why “Some Other Race” looms so large (and why that matters)
“Some Other Race” exploded in 2020 largely because many Hispanic respondents use write‑in responses that are coded into that category, so the White + Some Other Race count (19.3 million) reflects both multiracial self‑identification and changes in how the Census captures Hispanic origin and race write‑ins [3] [7]. Census analysts explicitly advise caution interpreting trends for groups involving “Some Other Race” because question wording and processing explain a sizable share of changes between 2010 and 2020 [6] [3].
4. Interpreting the surge: demography versus questionnaire effects
Demographers and journalists note two concurrent explanations: real increases in interracial families and identity shifts as more people embrace multiracial labels, and substantial measurement changes in the 2020 questionnaire and coding that made multiracial reporting easier and more visible [2] [3]. The Census Bureau’s own research and external experts warn that the 276% rise should be parsed carefully — some of it reflects evolving self‑identification but much reflects methodological improvements and new write‑in processing [3] [2].
5. What critics and advocates highlight beyond the tallies
Civil‑rights advocates and some social scientists argue that how the Census asks about race can obscure subgroup detail (for example, detailed Hispanic subgroups) or reshape counts used for policy and enforcement, and they pushed the bureau to balance accuracy with continuity [8]. Meanwhile, reporters and public‑health groups point out that the new multiracial visibility matters for services, mental‑health research, and local planning — even as analysts urge caution about year‑to‑year comparisons because of the 2020 question and coding changes [1] [5] [6].