Nationwide, USA - The percentage of people identifying themselves as multiracial grew three-and-a-half times faster during the last decade than the number of Americans reporting a single race, the U.S. Census Bureau said today.

The percentage of those who described themselves as multiracial grew 32 percent. The number saying they were a combination of white and black rose 134 percent; those saying they were white and Asian increased 87 percent. The number of people who said they were a single race rose 9.2 percent.

While they make up only 9 million of the nation’s 308.7 million people, multiracial Americans “exemplify the important changes that have occurred among people who reported more than one race over the last decade,” the Census Bureau said in its report.

The bureau first began allowing people to describe themselves as multiracial in 2000. People can identify as white, black, Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, “other,” or any combination. Ninety-two percent of multiracial Americans reported that they identified with two races; less than 1 percent reported being four or more races.

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