Love.  Rear view of a multiracial couple holding hand. Photo by Adobe Stock Images.

1 in 6 newlywed spouses are of different race or ethnicity

WASHINGTON — A new study says that 1 in 6 people who married in 2015 wed someone of a difference race or ethnicity, the highest proportion in American history.

The figures released Thursday come from a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Overall, 1 in 10 people — or 11 million — in the United States have spouses of a different race or ethnicity.

Pew researchers note that 50 years ago, only 3 percent of the people in the country were intermarried — that is, had spouses of a different race or ethnicity. That was in 1967 when the Supreme Court ruled interracial and interethnic marriage was legal throughout the United States

Before then, marriages between people of different races and ethnicities were illegal in many states.