For Some, Racial Identity Has Changed Percentage of adults with a multiracial background who say they are two or more races who Previously Always thought of as one race Percentage of adults with a multiracial background who say they are only one race who
This new approach gave us tremendous flexibility. Not only did we find out how people report race, we could see how many Americans marked only one race for themselves but had a mixed-race background when their parents’ or grandparents’ racial makeup was considered. We also could see in which generation a different race or races appeared in the family tree, and how multiracial identity persists or fades over the generations.
We had discovered in some of our early survey tests that most mixed-race adults did not consider themselves to be multiracial. We wanted to understand this response, so in the final survey we asked this group why they did not consider themselves to be multiracial.
For Some, Racial Identity Has Changed  | Percentage of adults with a multiracial background who  | say they are two or more races who  | Previously  | Always thought of  | thought of  | themselves as two  | themselves  | or more races  | as one race  | 29%  | 69%  | Percentage of adults with a multiracial background who  | say they are only one race who  | Previously  | Always thought of  | thought of  | themselves as  | themselves  | one race  | as two or  | more races  | 29%  | 70%  | Note: Multiracial adults are two or more races (based on  | backgrounds of self, parents or grandparents). Those who gave no  | answer are shown but not labeled,  | Source: Pew Research Center survey, Feb, 6-April 6, 2015  | (n- 1 555 multiracial adults)  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER  | Q10a-b 