Main article: Family of Barack Obama
Obama posing in the Green Room of the White House with wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia in 2009

In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."[340] Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband) and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family—six of them living.[341] Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[342] until her death on November 2, 2008,[343] two days before his election to the Presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011.[344] In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.[345]

Besides his native English, Obama speaks some basic Indonesian, having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta.[346][347] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team;[348] he is left-handed.[349]

Obama about to take a shot while three other players look at him. One of those players is holding is arms up in an attempt to block Obama.
Obama taking a shot during a game on the White House basketball court, 2009

Obama is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[350] In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[351] He is also primarily a Chicago Bears football fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as President.[352] In 2011, Obama invited the 1985 Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited the White House after their Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[353]

In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[354] Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at several group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[355] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[356] The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[357] followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[358] The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.[359] The Obamas have two Portuguese Water Dogs, the first, a male named Bo, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.[360] In August 2013, Bo was joined by Sunny, a female.[361]

Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[362] The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[363]

In December 2007, Money estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.[364] Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[365][366] On his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14 percent to non-profit organizations, including $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans' families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments.[367][368] As per his 2012 financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.[369]

Obama tried to quit smoking several times, sometimes using nicotine replacement therapy, and, in early 2010, Michelle Obama said that he had successfully quit smoking.[370][371]