Most Americans say race does not shape daily decisions even as 80% see nation divided

Most Americans say race does not play a meaningful role in selecting friends or business partners, according to a national survey conducted by Gallup and the Brookings Institution’s Center for Community Uplift.

In the survey of nearly 5,000 adults released this week, 87% said race is not important at all when deciding whom to work with, and 83% said it is not important at all when choosing friends. The findings reflect how respondents describe their everyday social and professional decision-making.

Asian Americans report the highest rates of interracial marriage among racial groups surveyed, with 29% saying they are married to someone of a different race. Latino or Hispanic Americans follow at 27%. Overall, about one-fourth of adults nationwide report having a spouse or romantic partner of a different racial or ethnic background.

Meanwhile, a third of adults under age 30 reported being in an interracial romantic partnership, compared with 14% of adults age 70 and older. Adults ages 18 to 29 are twice as likely as those 70 and older to report having a parent of a different race. Interracial marriage accounted for 3% of married couples in 1980 and rose to 10% by 2015, according to data cited in the study.

Eighty percent of respondents said they have a co-worker of a different race, and 83% reported having a client of a different race. Nearly half said they have had a boss of a different race, indicating frequent professional interaction across racial lines.

The report notes that politics and social media can amplify perceptions of racial division, even as Americans describe frequent cross-racial interaction in daily life. The authors caution that real-world networks remain more segregated than population shares would predict, and that self-reported attitudes are not the same as observed behavior. Residential and occupational segregation continue to shape patterns of exposure across communities.