More and more Americans are marrying people of different races and ethnicities, reaching at least 1 in 6 newlyweds in 2015, the highest proportion in American history, a new study released Thursday showed.

Currently, there are 11 million people - or 1 out of 10 married people - in the United States with a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

This is a big jump from 50 years ago, when the Supreme Court ruled interracial marriage was legal throughout the United States.

In the 50 years since the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case legalized interracial marriage in America, the percentage of newlyweds marrying outside their ethnicity has shot up from 3 per cent to 17 per cent

Richard and Mildred Loving were jailed in 1958 for marrying outside of their race. They took their case to the Supreme Court and won, legalizing interracial marriage not just in their home state of Virginia, but nationwide. Above, a still fro the 2016 film about them, Loving

That year, only 3 per cent of newlyweds were intermarried - which means they had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity. In 2015, 17 per cent of newlyweds were intermarried, a number which had held steady from the year before.

'There's much greater racial tolerance in the United States, with attitudes having changed in a way where it's much more positive toward interracial marriage,' said Daniel T. Lichter, director of the Institute for the Social Sciences at Cornell University, who studies interracial and interethnic marriages. 'But I think that a greater reason is the growing diversity of the population. There are just more demographic opportunities for people to marry someone of another race or ethnicity.'

Asians were most likely to intermarry in 2015, with 29 per cent of newlywed Asians married to someone of a different race or ethnicity, followed by Hispanics at 27 per cent, blacks at 18 per cent and whites at 11 per cent.

The Pew Research Center also found that Asians were the group most likely to marry outside of their race. Twenty-nine per cent of Asian newlyweds in 2015 were intermarried

Above, an example of a celebrity interracial couple. John Legend, right, is black while his wife Chrissy Teigen is half-Thai and half-white

The study found that black men were twice as likely to intermarry as black women

There also were differences between men and women.

Asian and Hispanic women were the most likely to marry someone of a different race or ethnicity in 2015, while Hispanic and black men were the most likely among men, the data showed. Thirty-six per cent of Asian women and 28 per cent of Hispanic women intermarried in 2015, while 26 per cent of Hispanic men and 24 per cent of black men married someone of a different race or ethnicity.

White and black women were the least likely to consider someone of a different race or ethnicity in 2015. Only 10 per cent of white women married outside their race or ethnicity, while only 12 per cent of black women were involved in intermarriage - half the rate of black men.

White men were the least likely among males to consider intermarriage, with only 12 per cent involved in interracial or interethnic marriages.

Intermarriage is on the rise with white and black Americans, but has stayed pretty much consistent with Hispanics and is on the downtrend for Asians

Despite those numbers, intermarriage is rapidly becoming more popular among blacks and whites. Since 1980, the number of blacks who chose to marry someone of a different race or ethnicity rose from 5 per cent to 18 per cent. Whites also have become more accepting of intermarriage, with the rates increasing from 4 per cent to 11 per cent during that same time period.

Interracial marriage became legal throughout the United States in 1967 when Richard and Mildred Loving took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Lovings were thrown into a Virginia jail in 1958 for violating the state's ban on interracial marriage. The Supreme Court struck down the Virginia law and those in roughly one-third of the states in 1967.

The study also found:

- The most common intermarriages were between a Hispanic and a white spouse at 42 per cent. The next most common was between a white and an Asian spouse at 15 per cent followed by a multiracial and a white spouse at 12 per cent.

- Interracial and interethnic marriages are more likely to happen in cities. Eighteen per cent of newlyweds in metropolitan areas were intermarried compared with 11 per cent living elsewhere.

- Roughly half - or 49 per cent - of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents see intermarriage as a good thing for society. For Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, less than 1 in 3 - or 28 per cent- saw marriages between races and ethnicities as a good thing for society.

The study also found that more Americans through interracial marriage was good for society in 2015 than in 2010