Nearly one in 10 couples are now ethnically mixed, according to an official analysis revealed today.

It said there are 2.3 million people living as part of a mixed couple, nine per cent of all those who live as part of a couple, and their numbers have gone up by more than a third in a decade.

The figures on inter-ethnic relationships, compiled by the Office for National Statistics, suggest that racial prejudice is a diminishing force and more and more people are happy to share their lives with someone from a different ethnic background.

The report also found that 833,000 children, some seven per cent of those under 16 or still at school in England and Wales, are being brought up in a home led by an ethnically-mixed couple.

The count of ethnically mixed couples was taken from the 2011 national census results. The most likely people to be living in a mixed relationship are those whose parents were ethnically mixed themselves, the report said.

‘People from the mixed groups are themselves likely to be the result of inter-ethnic relationships that have emerged in the last 60 years from post-war immigration patterns,’ the ONS report said.

‘These groups have a much younger age profile than some of the other ethnic groups and 80 per cent of the people in this group were born in the UK.’

The number of ethnically mixed couples went up from 1,709,000 at the time of the 2001 census to 2,327,000 in 2011, the report said.

The 36 per cent increase in numbers meant the percentage of mixed couples in the population went up from seven per cent to nine per cent of all couples.

Around eight per cent of married couples were from mixed backgrounds, and 12 per cent of cohabiting couples.

The ONS analysis counted different white groups such as ‘white British,’ ‘white Irish’ and ‘other whites’ - including people from parts of Europe, America and Austalia - as ethnically different.

However, the report said that despite an increase of more than a million in the number of people classed as ‘other white’ as a result of Eastern European immigration, the percentage of other white people in mixed relationships went down between 2001 and 2011.

The other white group, the report said, is made up mostly of people born outside Britain, and includes half a million Polish people. The group ‘contains more recent migrants who have had less time to establish mixed relationships,’ the ONS said.

Numbers of men and women in mixed relationships were broadly the same across most ethnic groups.

‘However, there were some differences between the sexes for some ethnic groups,’ the report said. ‘The biggest differences were found in the Chinese group where women were twice as likely – 39 per cent – to be in an inter-ethnic relationship as men.’

By contrast, Arab men were more likely to be in a mixed relationship than Arab women.

Fewer than a third of those in mixed relationships are over the age of 50.

‘Older people may have more traditional views on inter-ethnic relationships and they were also more likely to have entered into a relationship at a time when England and Wales were less ethnically diverse,’ the report said. ‘Younger people are more likely to have grown up in the UK exposed to other ethnic groups, and to respond to observed changes in society, in terms of increasing diversity.’

The most common inter-ethnic relationships were between white British, other white, and white Irish people, involving over 500,000 people.