Statistics About Cousin Marriage In The United States

This column examines some of the statistical data about cousin marriage in the United States. “An estimated 0.2 percent of marriages in the United States are between individuals who are second cousins or closer — that means there are about 250,000 people in America in those relationships.” These are older statistics, but there are some experts who think that the numbers might be rising in the near future. The term that is often used to describe these sorts of marriages is consanguinity, and this article provides a map showing the global prevalence of these sorts of relationships. These types of relationships are rare in the United States, but there are other parts of the world where consanguinity is more common. In the United States 25 states currently ban marriage between first cousins and there are other states that have restrictions on it.

See Mona Chalabi, How Many Americans Are Married To Their Cousins?, Five Thirty Eight, May 15, 2015.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.