by Bill Lee
June/July 2003

THE OFFICIAL COUNTS of the 2000 Census are in. Every decade, the U.S. Census Bureau tallies official counts of U.S. residents, enabling an accurate picture of the people of America, categorizing by demographics such as race, gender, economic status, and geographic location.

ONE CATEGORY THAT HAS BEEN A HOT TOPIC for minority communities is interracial dating and marriages. In the last official decennial census count of 1990, there were disparities among Blacks and Asians in the interracial marriage scene. In the 1990 U.S. Census, Black males were 2.5 times more likely to be married a White female than Black females married to a White male. Conversely, Asian females were 2.5 times more likely to be married to a White male than Asian males married to a White female.

IN THE UPDATED 2000 CENSUS, the interracial marriage trends take opposite turns for Blacks and Asians. Movies such as "Waiting to Exhale" and national television documentaries and magazines articles confirm there is a husband shortage within the Black community. The official 2000 census count shows that Black men are 2.82 times more likely to outmarry, predominantly to White women, than Black women are to outmarry. Interracial marriages are a minor factor compared to more predominant factors to the Black husband shortage. Specific examples include unusually high incarceration rates of Black males, and shortened life spans of Black males caused by higher rates of crime, homicide, and poverty.

IF THE STORIES OF BLACK WOMEN’S FRUSTRATIONS of finding Black men reach such national levels, why haven’t we seen similar stories and media documentaries of Asian males frustrated with the marriage scene? Because the wife shortage for Asian males is no more than fiction.

THE 2000 CENSUS SHOWS the interracial marriage disparity among Asians has declined. The official 2000 census count shows that Asian women are 2.35 times more likely to outmarry, predominantly to White men, than Asian men are to outmarry.

SO FOR EVERY 1,000 ASIAN WOMEN married to husbands, there where 885 Asian men married to women. In absolute terms, there were 275,000 more Asian women married than Asian men. The next question is, is there a wife shortage for Asian males simply because there are more Asian women married? The answer is no.

THE REASON THERE ARE MORE ASIAN WOMEN MARRIED is because more foreign born Asian women from overseas married to American men, primarily White men, are being imported into the United States. The first factor is the military factor. Since World War II, over 200,000 Asian women from Asia have married American G.I. soldiers and immigrated to the United States. The second factor is the mail order bride factor. The Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services reports that several thousand Asian mail order brides enter the United States every year, about 94 percent of them marrying White American males, and this mail order bride industry has been in business for decades.

THESE TWO FACTORS more than accommodates for this imaginary wife shortage for Asian males. Such reasons are why there is no need for national media coverage for Asian males, unlike the situation of Black women.

THESE CENSUS FIGURES ARE VALID COUNTS of actual U.S. citizens based on 56,497,000 married couples of the U.S. Census Bureau’s publication, America’s Families and Living Arrangements. It was first issued to the public on June 2001. The figures are not estimates; they are official tallies of the people of America used by the United States government to ration federal funding to state governments and local municipalities. Therefore, the figures are official and reliable.

– e n d –