Voting
rates among young adults fell to 38.0 percent in 2012 from 44.3 percent in
2008 following increases in two consecutive presidential elections (2008 and
2004), according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report on age and voting
patterns released today.
These statistics come from Young Adult Voting: An Analysis of Presidential
Elections, 1964-2012, which uses data collected by the Current
Population Survey. The report provides a detailed 50-year historical portrait
of voters with a specific focus on young adults.
In every U.S. presidential election from
1964 on, 18- to 24-year-olds voted at lower rates than all other age groups.
In contrast, Americans 65 and older have voted at higher rates than all other
age groups since the 1996 election.
“The young-adult voting gap closed somewhat
from 2000 to 2008 but opened up a bit again in 2012,” said Thom File, a sociologist
in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division.
“Age-based voting patterns are not set in stone. For example as recently as
1992, the nation’s oldest voters did not vote at a level higher than all
other age groups.”
State Level Voting
Voting rates also varied by state according
to the report. Although 18- to 29-year-olds voted at lower levels than other
age groups nationally in 2012, this result was not geographically uniform.
“Although young adults have been
historically less inclined to vote than older individuals, in 2012 young
voters were more engaged in states where older populations were highly
engaged as well,” File said. “At the very least, this suggests that low
voting rates among young adults can vary according to geography and other
factors.”
Gender and Age Differences
Voting rates have also varied according to
age and gender. Women tend to vote at higher rates than men across most age
groups. In every election since 1996, women age 18 through 29 voted at higher
rates than men of the same age, with a difference of about 8.0 percentage
points in 2008. For older Americans, a gender voting gap has operated in
reverse, with men 65 and older voting at higher rates than women of that age
in every election since 1996. At about 6.5 percentage points, this
differential was larger in 1996 than in the two most recent elections, with
older men voting at a higher rate than older women by about 3.7 percentage
points, an indication that the gender divide among older voters may soon be a
thing of the past.
Online Data Tools: Voting Report
In addition to the report, the Census
Bureau released an interactive Voting Report that provides comparisons of
voting and registration patterns by demographic, social and geographic
characteristics for the U.S. and states.
About the Current Population Survey
The Current Population Survey has collected
data on voting and voter registration in November of even-numbered election
years since 1964 and provides voting estimates alongside other population
characteristics, including age, sex, race and educational attainment.
As in all surveys, these statistics are
subject to sampling and nonsampling error. The strength of Census Bureau
voting statistics is that they look at voters’ social and demographic
characteristics, which are not available from an official vote tally. The
estimates of total voters presented in this report may differ from those
based on administrative data or exit polls for a variety of methodological
reasons. For more information, see the sections of the report on Source and Accuracy of the Data.
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Friday, April 25, 2014
Census Bureau Statistics Explore Voting Patterns of Young Adults
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