Martin Dribe

Although intermarriage is a commonly used indicator of immigrant integration into host societies, most research has focused on how individual characteristics determine intermarriage. This study uses the 1-910 IPUMS census sample to analyze how contextual factors affected intermarriage among European immigrants in the United States. We use newly-available complete-count census mircodata to construct contextual measures at a much lower level of aggregation than in previous studies. Our results confirm most findings in previous research relating to individual-level variables. We also find important associations between contextual factors and different marital outcomes. The relative size and sex ratio of the origin group, ethnic diversity, the share of the native born white population, and the proportion of life time spent by immigrants in the U.S. are all associated with exogamy. These patterns are highly similar across genders and immigrant generations.