The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from multiple races. Unlike the term biracial, which often is only used to refer to having parents or grandparents of two different races, the term multiracial may encompass biracial people but can also include people with more than two races in their heritage, or also may refer to the origin of more generationally distant genetic admixture

Genetic admixture

Genetic admixture occurs when individuals from two or more previously separated populations begin interbreeding. Admixture results in the introduction of new genetic lineages into a population. It has been known to slow local adaptation by introducing foreign, unadapted genotypes...

s of more than one race in a person's DNA.

The actual incidence of multiracial admixture and heritage is believed to be far higher than is commonly reported, although there is evidence that this is changing as people are becoming more comfortable with revealing personal multiracial heritage. Census records and other studies also show the real number of multiracial individuals to be increasing in the United States along with an increase in marriages across race lines. Other surveys also reflect this trend in many modern nations. The term multiracial may also be used to refer to groups or populations where individuals of more than one race are counted as a part of a whole group. In this sense of the word, 'multiracial' refers to a racially heterogeneous rather than a homogeneous group or population.

Definitions

While defining race is controversial,
race remains a commonly used term for categorization. Insofar as race is defined differently in different cultures, perceptions of multiraciality will naturally be subjective.

According to U.S. sociologist Troy Duster

Troy Duster

Troy Duster is a sociologist with research interests in the sociology of science, public policy, race and ethnicity and deviance. He is a Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and professor of sociology and director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge at...

 and ethicist Pilar Ossorio:
In the United States:

Related terms

In the English-speaking world

English-speaking world

The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...

, many terms for people of various multiracial backgrounds exist, some of which are pejorative or are no longer used. Mulato

Mulato

The mulato pepper is a mild to medium chile pepper, closely related to the poblano , and usually sold dried. Mexican mulato chiles are part of the famous "trilogy" used in mole as well as other Mexican sauces and stews. The mulato's color while growing is dark green, maturing to red or brown...

and mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

are used in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, mulato

Mulato

The mulato pepper is a mild to medium chile pepper, closely related to the poblano , and usually sold dried. Mexican mulato chiles are part of the famous "trilogy" used in mole as well as other Mexican sauces and stews. The mulato's color while growing is dark green, maturing to red or brown...

and mestiço in Portuguese and mulâtre and métis

Métis

A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...

in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 for people of multiracial descent. These terms are also in certain contexts used in the English-speaking world. In Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the Métis are a people of mixed white and First Nation descent.

Terms like mulatto for people of partly African descent and mestizo for people of partly Native American descent are still used in English , but mostly when referring to the past or to the demography of Latin-America. Half-breed

Half-breed

Half-breed is an historic term used to describe anyone who is mixed Native American and white European parentage...

is a now old-fashioned and pejorative term used for people of partial Native American ancestry. Mestee, once widely used, is now used mostly for members of old mixed-race groups, such as Melungeon

Melungeon

Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations...

s, Redbones

Redbone (ethnicity)

Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States, particularly in Louisiana, to refer to a Métis or Mestee ethnic group of mixed racial heritage.-Definition:...

, Brass Ankles

Brass Ankles

The Brass Ankles of South Carolina were a "tri-racial isolate" group that lived in the area of Orangeburg County, Berkeley County, and Charleston County in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. They were a mixture of African, Native American, and European descent. Although they were of mixed...

 and Mayles. In South Africa, and much of English-speaking southern Africa, the term Coloured was used to describe a mixed-race person but also Asians not of African descent. While the term is socially accepted, it is becoming an outdated term owing to its apartheid historical significance.

In Latin America, where mixtures are frequently tri-racial, a panoply of terms developed during the colonial period, including terms such as zambo

Zambo

Zambo or Cafuzo are racial terms used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry...

 for persons of indigenous-African descent. Charts and diagrams intended to elaborate these terms were common, and the famous Casta

Casta

Casta is a Portuguese and Spanish term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period...

 Paintings in Mexico and to some extent Peru, sought to illustrate the terms by how people of various blendings might appear. frequently, census categories reflect these ideas, but in modern censuses, for example, in Brazil, all persons of multiracial heritage tend to be thrown into the single category of "pardo

Pardo

In Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...

".

In English, the terms miscegenation

Miscegenation

Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....

and amalgamation

Amalgamation (history)

Amalgamation is a now largely archaic term for the intermarriage and interbreeding of different ethnicities or races. In the English-speaking world, the term was in use into the twentieth century. In the United States, it was partly replaced after 1863 by the term miscegenation...

have been used for race-mixing. These terms are now often considered offensive and are becoming obsolete. The terms mixed-race, biracial or multiracial are becoming generally accepted.

United States

Multiracial US Americans officially numbered 6.1 million in 2006, or 2.0% of the population. However there is considerable evidence that the actual number is much higher. Prior to the mid-20th century many people hid their multiracial heritage. Consequently many Americans today are multi-racial without knowing it.

In 2010, the number of Americans who checked both "black" and "white" on their census forms was 134 percent higher than it had been a decade earlier.

According to James P. Allen and Eugene Turner from California State University, Northridge, by some calculations in the 2000 Census the actual multiracial population that is part white, by far the largest percentage of the multiracial population, is as follows: the largest part of the white bi-racial population, is white/Native American and Alaskan Native, at 7,015,017, followed by white/black at 737,492, then white/Asian at 727,197, and finally white/Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander at 125,628.

The stigma of a mixed race heritage has decreased significantly in the United States, but is not completely gone. One sign of progress in this area was the election of President Barack Obama, who had a White mother and an African father. People of mixed-race heritage can now be listed in the U.S Census by any combination of races whereas before Americans were required to select from only one category. For example they may now choose more than one race from the following list:

"White" (or "Caucasian"), "Black" (or African American), "Asian", "Native American" or "Alaska Native", "Native Hawaiian", other "Pacific Islander" or "Some other race".

Many mixed raced Americans now also use the term biracial. The U.S. has a growing multiracial identity movement, reflective of the lessening stigma and discrimination. Miscegenation

Miscegenation

Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....

 or interracial marriage

Interracial marriage

Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...

, most notably between whites and blacks, was historically deemed immoral and illegal in most states in the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century. California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and the western US

Western United States

.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...

 had similar laws to prohibit White-Asian American marriages. Many states eventually repealed these laws, and a 1967 (Loving v. Virginia

Loving v. Virginia

Loving v. Virginia, , was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v...

 decision by the US Supreme Court) overturned all remaining anti-miscegenation laws

Anti-miscegenation laws

Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that enforced racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races...

 in the US.

The United States is one of the most racially diverse countries in the world. The American people are mostly multi-ethnic descendants of various immigrant nationalities culturally distinct until assimilation

Cultural assimilation

Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

 and integration

Racial integration

Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...

 took place, unevenly at different periods of history, depending on the American region. The "Americanization" of foreign ethnic groups and the inter-racial diversity of millions of Americans is not a new phenomenon but has been a fundamental part of its history, especially on frontiers where different groups of people came together.

The President of the United States, Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

, is a multiracial American, as he is the son of a Luo

Luo (Kenya and Tanzania)

The Luo are an ethnic group in Kenya, eastern Uganda, and northern Tanzania. They are part of a larger group of ethnolinguistically related Luo peoples who inhabit an area including southern Sudan, northern and eastern Uganda, western Kenya, and northern Tanzania.The Luo are the third largest...

 father from Kenya and a European American

European American

A European American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...

 mother. While he does acknowledge the heritage of his parents, he identifies as African-American.

Canada

Multiracial Canadians in 2006 officially totaled 1.5% of the population, up from 1.2% in 2001, although, this number may actually be far higher. The official mixed-race population grew by 25% since the previous census. Of these, the most frequent combinations were multiple visible minorities (for example, people of mixed south Asian and European heritage form the majority specifically in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

), followed closely by white-black, white-Chinese, white-Arab, and many other smaller mixes.

During the time of Slavery in the United States a very large but unknown number of American slaves of African descent escaped to Canada, where slavery was illegal, via the underground railroad. Many of these people married in with European-Canadian and Native-Canadian populations, although their precise numbers, and the numbers of their descendants, are not known.

Another 1.2% of Canadians officially are Métis

Métis people (Canada)

The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...

 (descendants of a historical population who were partially Aboriginal

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....

-- also called "Indian" or "Native American" in other North and South American countries mixed with European

European ethnic groups

The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....

, particularly French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

, English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

, Scottish

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

, and Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 ethnic groups). Although listed as a single "race" in Canada, the Métis are therefore multi-racial. In particular the Métis population may be far higher than the official numbers state, due to earlier racism causing people to historically hide their mixed heritage. This however is changing although many Canadians may now be unaware of their mixed race heritage, especially those of Métis descent.

This brings Canada to a total "recognized" mixed population of 2.7%, greater by percentage than that of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the United States.

Latin America

Mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

 is the common word used to describe multiracial people in Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, especially people with Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 and Spanish or other European ancestry. Mestizos make up a large portion of Latin Americans comprising a majority in most countries.

In Latin America, racial mixture was officially acknowledged from colonial times. There was official nomenclature for every conceivable mixture present in the various countries. Initially, this classification was used as a type of caste

Caste

Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...

 system, where rights and privileges were accorded depending on one's official racial classification. Official caste distinctions were abolished in many countries of the Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

-speaking Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

 as they became independent of Spain. Several terms have remained in common usage.

Race and racial mixture have played a significant role in the politics of many Latin American countries. In most countries, for example Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

, El Salvador

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

, and Belize

Belize

Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...

, a majority of the population can be described as biracial or multiracial (depending on the country). In Mexico, over 80% of the population is mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

 in some degree or another.

The Mexican philosopher and educator José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos Calderón was a Mexican writer, philosopher and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities in the development of modern Mexico. His philosophy of "indigenismo" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and economic...

 authored an essay on the subject, La Raza Cósmica

La Raza Cósmica

Published in 1925, La Raza Cósmica is an essay written by late Mexican philosopher, secretary of education, and 1929 presidential candidate, José Vasconcelos to express the ideology of a future "fifth race" in the Americas; an agglomeration of all the races in the world with no respect to color or...

, celebrating racial mixture. Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

n president Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...

, who is himself of Spanish, indigenous and African ancestry, has made positive references to the mixed-race ancestry of most Latin Americans from time to time.

Brazil

According to the 2000 official census, 38.5% of Brazilians identified themselves as pardo

Pardo

In Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...

 skin color. That option is normally marked by people that consider themselves multiracial (mestiço). The term pardo is formally used in the official census but is not used by the population. In Brazilian society, most people who are multiracial call themselves moreno

Moreno

-Places:*Moreno, Pernambuco, city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco*Perito Moreno Glacier, glacier in Patagonia, Argentina*Perito Moreno National Park, on the northwest of the Santa Cruz Province, Argentina...

: light-moreno or dark-moreno. These terms are not considered offensive and focus more on skin color than on ethnicity (it is considered more like other human characteristics such as being short or tall).

The most common multiracial groups are between African and European (mulato

Mulatto

Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...

), and Amerindian and European (caboclo

Caboclo

A caboclo or caboco is a person of a mixed Brazilian Indian and European ancestry. In Brazil, a caboclo is a specific type of mestiço as is the mulato, a person of a mixed Afro-Brazilian and European ancestry....

or mameluco). But there are also African and Amerindian (cafuzo), and East-Asian (mostly Japanese) and European/other (ainoko, or more recently, hafu

Hafu

The word ' is used in Japanese to refer to somebody who is biracial, i.e. ethnically half Japanese. The label emerged in the 1970s in Japan and is now the most commonly used label and preferred term of self-definition...

). All groups are more or less found throughout the whole country. Brazilian multiracials with the following three origins, Amerindian, European and African, performs the majority. It is said today that 89% or even more of the "Pardo" population in Brazil has at least one Amerindian ancestor (most of brancos or White Brazilian population have some Amerindian and/or African ancestry too and most Brazilians know about national mixed-race huge majority despite of nearly half of country population self-labeled Caucasian appearance at censuses. In Brazil, it is very common for Mulattoes to admit that they do not have any Amerindian ancestry, though studies have found that if a Brazilian multiracial can trace their ancestry to nearly 8 to 9 generations back, they will have at least one Amerindian ancestor from their maternal side of the family, which will explain many of their physical features and characteristics.

Since multiracial relations in Brazilian society have occurred for many generations, some people find it difficult to trace their own ethnic ancestry. Today a majority of mixed-race Brazilians do not really know their ethnic ancestry. Due to their unique features that makes them Brazilian-looking like skin color, lips and nose shape or hair texture, they are only aware that their ancestors were definitely Portuguese, African and/or Amerindian. There is also a high percentage of Brazilians of Jewish descent (10,000,000-30,000,000), mostly found in the northeast of the country who cannot be sure of their ancestry as they descend from the so-called "Crypto-Jews" (Jews who practiced Judaism in secret while outwardly pretending to be Catholics, also called Marranos or New-Christians, often considered Portuguese); according to some sources, 1 out of every 3 families to arrive there from Portugal during the colonization was of Jewish origin.
There is a high level of integration between all groups. However, has been existed a great social and economic difference between European descendants (found more among the upper and middle classes) and African, Amerindian and multiracial descendants (found more among the lower classes), what is called Brazilian apartheid.

United Kingdom

In 2000, The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times (UK)

The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

reported that "Britain has the highest rate of interracial relationships in the world" and certainly the UK has the highest rate in the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

. The 2001 census showed the population of England to be 1.4% mixed-race, compared with 2.7% in Canada and 1.4% in the U.S. estimates of 1.4% in 2002, although this U.S. figure did not include mixed-race people who had a black parent. Both the US and UK have fewer people identifying as mixed race, however, than Canada. By 2020 the mixed race population is expected to become Britain's largest ethnic minority group with the highest growth rate.

In Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, many multi-racial people have Caribbean

British African-Caribbean community

The British African Caribbean communities are residents of the United Kingdom who are of West Indian background and whose ancestors were primarily indigenous to Africa...

, African or Asian

British Asian

British Asian is a term used to describe British citizens who descended from mainly South Asia, also known as South Asians in the United Kingdom...

 heritage. For example supermodel Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world...

, who has African, Jamaican, and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

n roots. Some, like Formula One driver, Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, MBE is a British Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the McLaren team. He was the Formula One World Champion.Hamilton was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire...

, are referred to or describe themselves as 'mixed'.

The 2001 UK Census included a section entitled 'Mixed' to which 1.4% (1.6% by 2005 estimates) of people responded, which was split further into White and Black Caribbean, White and Asian, White and Black African and Other Mixed. Despite this, 2005 birth records for the country state at least 3.5% of new born babies as mixed race.

Cities/ Regions with notable Multiracial/ Mixed Race populations (England and Wales)

• Nottingham
  Nottingham
  Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
  
   – 3.70%
• Manchester
  Manchester
  Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
  
   – 3.23%
• London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
   – 3.15%
  • Lambeth
    London Borough of Lambeth
    The London Borough of Lambeth is a London borough in south London, England and forms part of Inner London. The local authority is Lambeth London Borough Council.-Origins:...
    
     – 4.83%
• Slough
  Slough
  Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
  
   – 3.00%
• Birmingham
  Birmingham
  Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
  
   – 2.90%
• Sheffield
  Sheffield
  Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
  
   – 2.60%
• Wolverhampton
  Wolverhampton
  Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
  
   – 2.70%
• Luton
  Luton
  Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
  
   – 2.56%
• Leicester
  Leicester
  Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
  
   – 2.30%
• Coventry
  Coventry
  Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
  
   – 2.20%
• Liverpool
  Liverpool
  Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
  
   – 2.20%
• West Midlands
  West Midlands (county)
  The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
  
   – 2.14%
• Bristol
  Bristol
  Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
  
   – 2.08%
• Derby
  Derby
  Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
  
   – 2.00%
• Gloucester
  Gloucester
  Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
  
   – 2.00%
• Cardiff
  Cardiff
  Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
  
   – 1.99%
• City of Leeds
  City of Leeds
  The City of Leeds is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Leeds City Council, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. The metropolitan district includes Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell,...
  
   – 1.80%

• Southampton
  Southampton
  Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
  
   – 1.50%
• City of Bradford
  City of Bradford
  The City of Bradford is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Haworth, Silsden and...
  
   – 1.40%

North Africa

In North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

, People of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Egypt are a marriage between Berbers, Mediterranean race

Mediterranean race

The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the Caucasian race and the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, following the publication of William Z. Ripley's book The Races of Europe...

, people from Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...

 and Arabs.

South Africa

In South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between people of different races. It was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948...

 prohibited marriage between whites and non-whites (which were classified as Black, Asian and Coloured

Coloured

In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...

). Multiracial South Africans are commonly referred to as coloured

Coloured

In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...

s. According to the 2001 South African Census, they are the second largest minority (8.9%) after white South Africans (9.2%).

India

Anglo-Indians are the mixed race, which originated in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 during the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

, or the Colonial period in India. The estimated population of Anglo-Indians is 600,000 worldwide with the majority living in India and the UK.

Burma

As with India, Burma was ruled by the British, from 1826 until 1948. Many European groups vied for control of the country prior to the arrival of the British. Intermarriage and mixed-relationships between these settlers and merchants with the local Burmese population, and subsequently between British colonists and the Burmese created a local Eurasian population, known as the Anglo-Burmese

Anglo-Burmese

The Anglo-Burmese, also known as the Anglo-Burmans, are a community of Eurasians of Burmese and European descent, and emerged as a distinct community through mixed relations between the British and other European settlers and the indigenous peoples of Burma from 1826 until 1948 when Burma gained...

. This group dominated colonial society and through the early years of independence. Most Anglo-Burmese

Anglo-Burmese

The Anglo-Burmese, also known as the Anglo-Burmans, are a community of Eurasians of Burmese and European descent, and emerged as a distinct community through mixed relations between the British and other European settlers and the indigenous peoples of Burma from 1826 until 1948 when Burma gained...

 now reside primarily in Australia, New Zealand and the UK since Burma received her independence in 1948 with an estimated 52,000 left behind in Burma.

Sri Lanka

Due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, the island of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 has been a confluence for settlers from various parts of the world, which has resulted in the formation of several mixed-race ethnicities in the Island. The most notable mixed race group are the Sri Lankan Moors

Sri Lankan Moors

The Sri Lankan Moors are the third largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka comprising 8% of the country's total population . They are predominantly followers of Islam. The Moors trace their ancestry to Arab traders who settled in Sri Lanka some time between the 8th and 15th centuries...

, who trace their ancestry from Arab traders who settled on the island and intermarried with local women. Today, The Sri Lankan Moors live primarily in urban communities, preserving their Arab-Islamic cultural heritage while adopting many Southern Asian customs.

The Burghers

Burgher people

The Burghers are a Eurasian ethnic group, historically from Sri Lanka, consisting for the most part of male-line descendants of European colonists from the 16th to 20th centuries and local women, with some minorities of Swedish, Norwegian, French and Irish.Today the mother tongue of the Burghers...

 are a Eurasian ethnic group, consisting for the most part of male-line descendants of European colonists from the 16th to 20th centuries (mostly Portuguese, Dutch, German and British) and local women, with some minorities of Swedish, Norwegian, French and Irish.

The Kaffirs

Sri Lanka Kaffir people

The Sri Lankan Kaffirs are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka who are partially descended from 16th century Portuguese traders and the African slaves who were brought by them to work as labourers and soldiers to fight against the Sri Lankan kings...

  are an ethnic group who are partially descended from 16th century Portuguese traders and the African slaves who were brought by them.The Kaffirs spoke a distinctive creole based on Portuguese, the Sri Lanka Kaffir language, now extinct. Their cultural heritage includes the dance styles Kaffringna and Manja, as well as the Portugese Sinhalese, Creole, Afro-Sinhalese varieties.

Singapore and Malaysia

According to government statistics, the population of Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 as of September 2007 was 4.68 million, of whom multiracial people, including Chindian

Chindian

"Chindian" is a compound word used to refer to an Indian restaurant within the village of Chinnor, Oxfordshire. It is formed simply, yet ingeniously, by putting the "ch" from "Chinnor" in front of the word "Indian"....

s and Eurasians

Eurasian (mixed ancestry)

The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....

, formed 2.4%.

In Singapore and Malaysia, the majority of inter-ethnic marriages are between Chinese

Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....

 and Indians

Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin

A Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...

. The offspring of such marriages are informally known as "Chindian

Chindian

"Chindian" is a compound word used to refer to an Indian restaurant within the village of Chinnor, Oxfordshire. It is formed simply, yet ingeniously, by putting the "ch" from "Chinnor" in front of the word "Indian"....

", though the Malaysian government only classifies them by their father's ethnicity. As the majority of these intermarriages usually involve an Indian groom and Chinese bride, the majority of Chindians in Malaysia are usually classified as "Indian" by the Malaysian government. As for the Malays, who are predominantly Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

, legal restrictions in Malaysia make it uncommon for them to intermarry with either the Indians, who are predominantly Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

, or the Chinese, who are predominantly Buddhist

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 and Taoist

Taoism

Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...

. It is, however, common for Muslims and Arabs in Singapore

Arab Singaporean

The majority of the Arabs in Singapore are Hadhramis tracing their ancestry from the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula called Hadhramaut, which is now part of the Republic of Yemen. The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen PDRY was formed on 30 November 1967 when it achieved independence...

 and Malaysia to take local Malay wives, due to a common Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic faith.

The Chitty

Chitty

The Chitty are a distinctive group of Tamil people found mainly in Malacca and Singapore , who are also known as the Indian Peranakans. As of today, their population stands at 2,000.-Language:...

 people, in Singapore and the Malacca

Malacca

Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...

 state of Malaysia, are a Tamil people

Tamil people

Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...

 with considerable Malay descent. This was due to the first Tamil settlers taking local wives, since they did not bring along any of their own women with them.

Philippines

Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 was a Spanish colony for about 300 years, and then by the Americans when the Spanish was defeated. This is the cause of many mixed race Filipinos of Filipino-Spanish and Filipino-American descent.

After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish-American War

Spanish-American War

The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...

 in 1898, the Philippines and other remaining Spanish colonies were ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris

Treaty of Paris (1898)

The Treaty of Paris of 1898 was signed on December 10, 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, and came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the ratifications were exchanged....

. The Philippines was under U.S. sovereignty

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

 until 1946, though occupied by Japan during World War II. In 1946, in the Treaty of Manila

Treaty of Manila (1946)

The Treaty of Manila is a treaty of general relations signed on July 4, 1946 in Manila, capital of the Philippines. Parties to the treaty were the governments of the United States and the Republic of the Philippines...

, the U.S. Recognized the Republic of the Philippines as an independent nation. Even after 1946, the U.S. maintained a heavy military presence in the Philippines, with as many as 21 U.S. military bases and 100,000 U.S. military personnel stationed there. The bases closed in 1992, leaving behind thousands of Amerasian

Amerasian

In its original meaning, an Amerasian is a person born in Asia, to a U.S. military father and an Asian mother. The term has sometimes been used to describe a person in the United States of mixed Asian and non-Asian ancestry, regardless of the circumstances....

 children.
Pearl S. Buck International foundation estimates there are 52,000 Amerasians scattered throughout the Philippines with 5,000 in the Clark area of Angeles.

A genetic study by Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 indicates that at least 3.6% of the population are European

European ethnic groups

The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....

 or of part European descent from both Spanish and American colonization.

In the United States, intermarriage among Filipinos with other races is common. They have the largest number of interracial marriage

Interracial marriage

Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...

s among Asian immigrant groups, as documented in California. It is also noted that 21.8% of Filipino Americans are of mixed lineage, second among Asian Americans after the Japanese, and is the fastest growing.

Vietnam

Under terms of the Geneva Accords of 1954

Geneva Conference (1954)

The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Korea and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina...

, departing French troops took thousands of Vietnamese wives and children with them after the First Indochina War

First Indochina War

The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...

. Some 100,000 Eurasians stayed in Vietnam, though after independence from French rule.

New Zealand

Large scale European colonisation and settlement of New Zealand since the 1840s has led to a large racial mixing of them and the local Maori and Pacific populations. There are also smaller populations of mixed European and Pacific Island people, as well as mixing between white and Asian populations. All of New Zealand's half million Maori can claim some Pakeha parentage. Especially common mixtures are Irish Maori, Scottish Maori and Anglo Maori. Less common are Jewish Maori (Nathan and Benjamin are common Maori surnames) and Dutch Maori (Both mostly since 1950s). Because ones' race and culture in New Zealand is often a form of self identification, actual numbers are hard to gauge. (Statistics New Zealand, Census of Population and Dwellings 2006). In the last census (2006) many New Zealanders refused to state their ethnicity, or claimed multiple ethnicities and 19% chose New Zealander (Source New Zealand Herald 2006). Examples of these people include Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (opera singer) actress Rena Owen

Rena Owen

Rena Owen is a New Zealand actress in film, theatre and television. She is of Maori, Torres Strait Islander and Pakeha descent. Owen is most well known in the lead role of Beth in the cult classic movie Once Were Warriors directed by Lee Tamahori...

 and ex Governor General Sir Paul Reeves

Paul Reeves

Sir Paul Alfred Reeves, ONZ, GCMG, GCVO, CF, QSO was Archbishop and Primate of New Zealand from 1980 to 1985 and the 15th Governor-General of New Zealand from 22 November 1985 to 20 November 1990...

.

Fiji

Fiji has long been a multi-ethnic country, with a vast majority of people having multi-racial heritages even if they do not self-identify in that manner. The indigenous Fijians themselves are actually a mixture of Melanesian and Polynesian ancestry resulting from years of migration of islanders from various places mixing with each other during and after the various waves of migration. Fiji Islanders from the Lau group especially physically look and are more prone to verbalise mixed race ethnicity, after much intermarriage with Tongans and other Polynesians over the years. The overwhelming majority of the rest of the indigenous Fijians, though, can be genetically traced to having mixed Polynesian/Melanesian ancestry, as evidenced in physical and body characteristics of both groups.

The Indo-Fijian population is also a hodge-podge of South Asian immigrants (called Girmits in Fiji), who came as indentured labourers beginning in 1879. While a few of these labourers managed to bring wives, many of them either took or were given wives once they arrived in Fiji. The Girmits, who are classified as simply "Indians" to this day, came from many parts of the Indian subcontinent of present day India, Pakistan, and to a lesser degree Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is easy to recognize the Indian mixtures present in Fiji and see obvious traces of Southern and Northern Indians and other groups who have been categorised together. To some degree, even more of this phenomenon would have likely happened if the religious groups represented (primarily Hindu, Muslim and Sikh) had not resisted to some degree marriage between religious groups, which tended to be from more similar parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Over the years, particularly in the sugar cane growing regions of Western Viti Levu and parts of Vanua Levu, Indo-Fijians and Indigenous Fijians have mixed. It is also not uncommon to find people of Chinese/Fijian ancestry, Indo-Fijian/Samoan or Rotuman ancestry, and European/Fijian ancestry (often called 'part-Fijians'). The latter are often descendents of beachcombers (particularly shipwrecked sailors) and settlers that came over during Fiji's colonial rule. Further settling and subsequent mixing of islanders from a dozen or more different Pacific countries (Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Vanautu, Samoa, and Wallis and Futuna being the most prevalent) have added to the melting pot that is Fiji. Without a doubt, it is the most racially mixed nation in the Pacific, it's only rival being the US State of Hawaii.

Ethnic groups

The following is a list of ethnic divisions that are a mixture of two or more racial groups.
African-origin

• Afro-Arab
  Afro-Arab
  Afro-Arab refers to people of mixed Black African and genealogical Arab ancestral heritage and/or linguistically and culturally Arabized Black Africans...
  
  
• Afro-Asian mostly native to the Americas and Africa
• Cafres
• Coloured
  Coloured
  In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
  
   Southern African
• Creoles of color
  Creoles of color
  The Creoles of Color are a historic ethnic group of Louisiana, especially the city of New Orleans.-History:During Louisiana’s colonial period, Creole referred to people born in Louisiana with ancestors from elsewhere; i.e., all natives other than Native Americans. They used the term to separate...
  
  
• Dominica
  Dominica
  Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
  
  
• Griqua
• Mulatto
  Mulatto
  Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
  
  

Asian-origin

• Afro Asians (African Asians)
  Afro Asians (African Asians)
  Afro-Asians are African communities have been living in India and the Indian subcontinent for several hundred years and have settled in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India....
  
   native to Asia, some sub-groups within this demographic are biracial
• Amerasian
  Amerasian
  In its original meaning, an Amerasian is a person born in Asia, to a U.S. military father and an Asian mother. The term has sometimes been used to describe a person in the United States of mixed Asian and non-Asian ancestry, regardless of the circumstances....
  
  
• Anglo-Indian
  Anglo-Indian
  Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent...
  
  
• Burgher people
  Burgher people
  The Burghers are a Eurasian ethnic group, historically from Sri Lanka, consisting for the most part of male-line descendants of European colonists from the 16th to 20th centuries and local women, with some minorities of Swedish, Norwegian, French and Irish.Today the mother tongue of the Burghers...
  
  
• Eurasian
  Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
  The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
  
  
• Hafu
  Hafu
  The word ' is used in Japanese to refer to somebody who is biracial, i.e. ethnically half Japanese. The label emerged in the 1970s in Japan and is now the most commonly used label and preferred term of self-definition...
  
  
• Hapa
  Hapa
  Hapa is a Hawaiian language term used to describe a person of mixed Asian or Pacific Islander racial or ethnic heritage.-Etymology:In the Hawaiian language, hapa is defined as: portion, fragment, part, fraction, installment; to be partial, less. It is a loan from the English word half...
  
  
• Indo people
• Lipka Tatars
  Lipka Tatars
  The Lipka Tatars are a group of Tatars who originally settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the beginning of 14th century. The first settlers tried to preserve their shamanistic religion and sought asylum amongst the non-Christian Lithuanians...
  
  
• Romani people
• Siberian peoples
• Sri Lankan Moors
  Sri Lankan Moors
  The Sri Lankan Moors are the third largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka comprising 8% of the country's total population . They are predominantly followers of Islam. The Moors trace their ancestry to Arab traders who settled in Sri Lanka some time between the 8th and 15th centuries...
  
  

Berber/Arab-Origin

• Afro-Arab
  Afro-Arab
  Afro-Arab refers to people of mixed Black African and genealogical Arab ancestral heritage and/or linguistically and culturally Arabized Black Africans...
  
  
• Berber people
  Berber people
  Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
  
  
• Maghreb people
  Maghreb people
  Maghrebis or Maghrebian people or Maghrebians are the inhabitants of the Maghreb countries . During Al-Andalus, Maghrebis were known as Moors.-Origins:...
  
  
• Moors
• Riffian people
  Riffian people
  The Rifians are a Berber people who inhabit the Rif in northern Morocco. The mother tongue of the Rifians is called Rifian, though many speak Moroccan Arabic, Spanish or French as second or third languages.-Physical anthropology:...
  
  
• Somali people
  Somali people
  Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
  
  

European-origin

• Basters
• Black Dutch
  Black Dutch
  Black Dutch is a term with several different meanings in United States dialect and slang. It generally refers to racial, ethnic, or cultural roots. Its meaning has varied in different parts of the nation and at different times...
  
  
• Black Irish of the American South
• Black Irish of the Caribbean
• Black Irish of Ireland
• British Mixed
• Castizo
  Castizo
  Castizo is a Spanish word with a general meaning of "pure" or "genuine". The feminine form is castiza. From this meaning it evolved other meanings, such as "typical of an area" and it was also used for one of the colonial Spanish race categories, the castas, that evolved in the seventeenth...
  
  
• Isleños
  Isleños
  Isleño is the Spanish word meaning "islander." The Isleños are the descendants of Canary Island immigrants to Louisiana, Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other parts of the Americas....
  
  
• Eurasian
  Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
  The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
  
  
• Rhineland Bastards

Native American-origin

• Atlantic Creole
  Atlantic Creole
  Atlantic Creole is a term used in North America to describe the Charter Generation of slaves during the European colonization of the Americas before 1660. These slaves had cultural roots in Africa, Europe and sometimes the Caribbean. They were of mixed race, primarily descended from European...
  
  
• Black Indians
  Black Indians
  Black Native Americans is a term that refers to people of African-American descent, usually with significant Native American ancestry, who also have strong ties to Native American culture, social, and historical traditions....
  
  
• Casta
  Casta
  Casta is a Portuguese and Spanish term used in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period...
  
  
• Caboclo
  Caboclo
  A caboclo or caboco is a person of a mixed Brazilian Indian and European ancestry. In Brazil, a caboclo is a specific type of mestiço as is the mulato, a person of a mixed Afro-Brazilian and European ancestry....
  
  
• Cherokee freedmen
• Chestnut Ridge people
  Chestnut Ridge people
  The Chestnut Ridge people are a mixed-race community residing just northeast of Philippi, Barbour County in north-central West Virginia. They are often called "Mayles" or "Guineas"...
  
  
• Cholo
  Cholo
  Cholo is an ethnic slur created by Hispanic criollos in the 16th century, and it has been applied to individuals of mixed or pure American Indian ancestry, or other racially mixed origin. The precise usage of "cholo" has varied widely in different times and places...
  
  
• Garifuna
• Hapa
  Hapa
  Hapa is a Hawaiian language term used to describe a person of mixed Asian or Pacific Islander racial or ethnic heritage.-Etymology:In the Hawaiian language, hapa is defined as: portion, fragment, part, fraction, installment; to be partial, less. It is a loan from the English word half...
  
  
• Half-breed
  Half-breed
  Half-breed is an historic term used to describe anyone who is mixed Native American and white European parentage...
  
  
• Lumbee
  Lumbee
  The Lumbee belong to a state recognized Native American tribe in North Carolina. The Lumbee are concentrated in Robeson County and named for the primary waterway traversing the county...
  
  
• Marabou
  Marabou (ethnicity)
  Marabou is a term of Haitian origin denoting multiracial admixture. The term describes the offspring of a person of mixed race: black African/European and East Indian ancestry, born in Haiti. The East Indians arrived in Haiti from other Caribbean islands...
  
  
• Melungeon
  Melungeon
  Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations...
  
  
• Mestee
• Mestizo
  Mestizo
  Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
  
  
• Métis people (Canada)
  Métis people (Canada)
  The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
  
  
• Métis people (United States)
• Miskito Zambo
  Miskito Sambu
  The Miskito Sambu are a mixed-race population group occupying the Caribbean coast of Central America, focused on the region of the Honduras-Nicaragua border...
  
  
• Mixed-Bloods
• Pardo
  Pardo
  In Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...
  
  
• Redbone
  Redbone (ethnicity)
  Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States, particularly in Louisiana, to refer to a Métis or Mestee ethnic group of mixed racial heritage.-Definition:...
  
  
• Zambo
  Zambo
  Zambo or Cafuzo are racial terms used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires and occasionally today to identify individuals in the Americas who are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry...
  
  

Semitic-Origin

• Jews
  Jews
  The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
  
  
• Habesha people
  Habesha people
  The term Habesha ābešā, Ḥābešā; al-Ḥabašah) refers to the South Semitic-speaking group of people whose cultural, linguistic, and in certain cases, ancestral origins trace back to those people who ruled the Axumite Empire and the kingdom known as DʿMT .Peoples referred to as "Habesha" today...
  
  

Tri-Racial-Origin

*individual members of these groups may instead be biracial

• Atlantic Creole
  Atlantic Creole
  Atlantic Creole is a term used in North America to describe the Charter Generation of slaves during the European colonization of the Americas before 1660. These slaves had cultural roots in Africa, Europe and sometimes the Caribbean. They were of mixed race, primarily descended from European...
  
  
• Brass ankles
  Brass Ankles
  The Brass Ankles of South Carolina were a "tri-racial isolate" group that lived in the area of Orangeburg County, Berkeley County, and Charleston County in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. They were a mixture of African, Native American, and European descent. Although they were of mixed...
  
  
• Brazilian people
• Cuban people
• Louisiana Creole people
  Louisiana Creole people
  Louisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent. The term was first used during colonial times by the settlers to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to those born in the Old World...
  
  
• Melungeon
  Melungeon
  Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations...
  
  
• Puerto Rican people
  Puerto Rican people
  A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
  
  
• Redbone
  Redbone (ethnicity)
  Redbone is a term historically used in much of the southern United States, particularly in Louisiana, to refer to a Métis or Mestee ethnic group of mixed racial heritage.-Definition:...
  
   Possibly Quadri-Racial, or of four races, in some communities
• We-Sorts/Proctors of Southern Maryland
  We-Sorts
  We-Sorts is a name for a group of Native Americans in Maryland who are from the Piscataway tribe. Piscataways have always claimed to be Native American people. The Piscataway were powerful at the time of European encounter...
  
  

Other types

• Creole peoples
  Creole peoples
  The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
  
  
• Race of the Future

Within Native American Tribal Nations
Many Native American tribes have significant minority populations, or in some cases even majority populations, of people with multi-racial origin. However many of these individuals will identify simply as tribal members of that Nation. Official standards for what degree of blood heritage constitutes a tribal member varies dramatically between different Indian Nations. Some Tribal Nations have strict blood standards and some use standards of cultural identification with a less strict blood standard.

Multiraciality in prehistory

Recent DNA studies have shown that many populations within groups heretofore considered to be of a single race actually have an ancient multi-racial heritage. For example, Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)

The point of origin of R1b is thought to lie in Eurasia, most likely in Western Asia. T. Karafet et al. estimated the age of R1, the parent of R1b, as 18,500 years before present....

, 'ethnic' DNA found in high amounts amongst European populations, can also be found in some North African, and Central Asian populations dating back no more than 18,500 years ago (fairly recent in human history), and it is likely that this cross-migration came much later than this—since the 18,500 year number is the estimated time of the very beginning of this Haplogroup, meaning any cross-migrations would likely have come later.

There are also numerous other more recent Afro-European DNA connections in some parts of Europe, especially between North Africa and Southern Europe, although not exclusively so. For example the DNA of Berber

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...

 peoples (a North African ethnic group) has been found in small but consistent amounts (about 5% on average) in many parts of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, and also Eastern Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

, as well as parts of Spain. Rather than relating to single migrations, these admixture

Admixture

Admixture can refer to:* Genetic admixture, the result of interbreeding between two or more previously isolated populations within a species.* Racial admixture, admixture between humans, also referred to as Miscegenation* Hybrid...

s could possibly be reflective of numerous population influxes, and out-fluxes over long periods of time. Similar, and very complex patterns of interrelationship can be found between some African, Asian, and the Pacific Islander populations as well. If one looks even further back it is well-established that all current modern human populations have recent paleoanthropological origins in Africa, meaning that all races of currently living people have common origins. This widely held theory is called the "Recent African origin of modern humans

Recent African origin of modern humans

In paleoanthropology, the recent African origin of modern humans is the most widely accepted model describing the origin and early dispersal of anatomically modern humans...

", which holds to the recent single origin of modern humans in East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

, and has become the near-consensus view within the scientific community.

See also

• Amalgamation
  Amalgamation (history)
  Amalgamation is a now largely archaic term for the intermarriage and interbreeding of different ethnicities or races. In the English-speaking world, the term was in use into the twentieth century. In the United States, it was partly replaced after 1863 by the term miscegenation...
  
  
• Ethnicity
• Interracial Marriage
  Interracial marriage
  Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
  
  
• Melting pot
  Melting pot
  The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
  
  
• Miscegenation
  Miscegenation
  Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
  
  
• Mixed Race Day
  Mixed Race Day
  Mixed Race Day is celebrated on June 27 in Brazil as a reference to the twenty-seven mixed-race representatives elected during the 1st Conference for the Promotion of Racial Equality, which occurred in the city of Manaus, State of Amazonas, Brazil, from April 7 to 9, 2005...
  
  
• Race (classification of human beings)
• Race and genetics
• Multiethnic
• One-drop rule
  One-drop rule
  The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States for the social classification as black of individuals with any African ancestry; meaning any person with "one drop of black blood" was considered black...
  
  
• Origins of Tutsi and Hutu
  Origins of Tutsi and Hutu
  The origins of the Tutsi and Hutu peoples is a key issue in the history of Burundi and Rwanda, as well as the Great Lakes region of Africa. While the Hutu are generally recognized as the ethnic majority of Rwanda, in racialist ideology the Tutsi were identified as a foreign race, as opposed to an...
  
  
• Passing
  Passing (racial identity)
  Racial passing refers to a person classified as a member of one racial group attempting to be accepted as a member of a different racial group...
  
  
• Plaçage
  Plaçage
  Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in which white French and Spanish and later Creole men entered into the equivalent of common-law marriages with women of African, Indian and white Creole descent. The term comes from the French placer meaning "to place with"...
  
  
• Pre-Columbian theories I
• Pre-Columbian theories II
• Race Traitor
  Race traitor
  Race traitor is a pejorative reference to a person who is perceived as supporting attitudes or positions thought to be against the interests or well-being of their own race...
  
  
• Social Race
• William Loren Katz
  William Loren Katz
  William Loren Katz is an American educator, historian, and author of many books on African-American history, including a number of titles for young adult readers...
  
  

External links

• Blended People of America, US-based non-profit organization representing the interests of the mixed race community, founded 2007
• Mixed Race UK is a UK-based non-profit organization representing the interests of the mixed race community the UK
• THE HAFU PROJECT - A study of half Japanese people, London, Munich, Tokyo based not for profit organisation, "photographs and interviews" project + events program
• The Association of MultiEthnic Americans, Inc., founded 1988
• MixedChild.com, Online resource for people of mixed heritage, founded 2009
• Multiethnic Education Program offering resources and strategies (including videos, publications & trainings) to support mixed race children in educational settings.
• MAVIN Foundation, an organization advocating for mixed heritage people and families
• Swirl, US-based mixed community, founded in 2000
• MOSAIC UK, a UK-based organisation for mixed race families
• Turquoise Association, a UK-based organisation celebrating mixed race heritage
• The Multiracial Activist: an online activist publication registered with the Library of Congress, focused on multiracial individuals and interracial families since 1997
• Brazilian Multiracial Movement, the first Brazilian mixed-race organization, founded in 2001
• ProjectRACE, an organization leading the movement for a multiracial classification
• People in Harmony UK, founded in 1972
• Notable Multiracial People
• CNN's Betty Nguyen profiles Kip Fulbeck's Multiracial Project – "Growing Up Hapa"
• Asian-Nation Hapa/Multiracial Asian Americans
• Intermix, a UK based online presence for mixed-race individuals, their families and carers and those in racially mixed relationships.
• Sex and Race in the Black Atlantic The first book to place the self-fashioning of mixed-race individuals in the context of a Black Atlantic