Exchanging Race for Religion? Interracial Unions and Religion in Brazil, 1980-2010

This paper presents a twofold objective. First, it analyzes interracial marriage rate differences according to religious affiliation. Secondly, it compares the most relevant interracial marriage changes from 1980 to 2010 using loglinear models. The first analysis focuses on results until 2000. They indicate that when spouses or partners have the same religion, the marriage percentage distribution remains practically the same as the total distribution. However, when analyzing marriages between religiously heterogamous partners, all racially homogamous marriages decrease, and all interracial marriages increase. Additionally, all the model association coefficients demonstrate that having the same religion is important not only for interracial marriages but also for all homogamous couples. In Brazil, the strength of religious belief is highly relevant to unions, even for interracial couples. Religion has considerable power over partner choice. Although interracial unions increased between 1980 and 2000, religious heterogamous unions changed at a different pace. In the last decade, changes in the Brazilian religious scenario and racial composition motivated the 2010 analysis.