WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2022—As we approach the midterm elections, the American Immigration Council released a report that examines America’s electorate. The data interactive, “The Changing Demographics of the Electorate at a State Level,” highlights the changes in the demographics of eligible voters in every state now compared to 2016, broken down by gender, age, and ethnicity.
“Data from the 2020 Census has already shown how the U.S. population has continued and even sped up its demographic diversification. This demographic change is now leaving its mark in electorates in states all over the country as younger, more diverse generations of U.S.-born people age into voting eligibility and as more immigrants take the important step of becoming citizens and earning the right to vote,” said Andrew Lim, research director at the American Immigration Council. “With the 2022 midterm elections on the horizon, our new data interactive tool highlights where close races are expected. These are states where the extent to which changing electorates can be activated by different campaigns may help determine who wins and who loses come November.”
The key findings of the report include:
- Several states have seen an especially rapid expansion of their eligible voter populations. States that have seen rapid population growth unsurprisingly have seen their numbers of adult U.S. citizen residents increase commensurately.
- Idaho, which was the fastest growing state in terms of population in 2022 also saw the fastest growth in its voting eligible population between 2016 and 2022, growing by 208,000 or 18%.
- Texas, a perennially fast-growing state for decades now, also saw significant growth with almost more 1.7 million eligible voters in 2022 than estimated in 2016. Texas also saw significant growth among immigrant voters, with the immigrant share of the electorate increasing by almost 2 percentage points to reach 11.1%. This means 1 in 9 eligible voters in Texas are immigrants.
- Several swing states have rapidly growing Hispanic electorates. Nevada, which has a competitive Senate contest this year, saw the largest increase in the Hispanic share of its voting eligible population since 2016. In Nevada, the share of the electorate that identified as Hispanic increased by almost 5 percentage points, from 17.7% in 2016 to 22.4% in 2022.
- New Hampshire, a key swing state in the Northeast, saw the largest relative increase in the share of its eligible voter population that was 65 years or older. From 20.4% in 2016, the elderly share of the electorate increased by more than 6 percentage points to reach 26.5%, meaning well over 1 out of 4 eligible voters in the Granite State were 65 years or older.
- In Nevada, another fast-growing state, Asian and Pacific Islander voters now make up more than 1 in 10 eligible voters.
This new data interactive is one of many research pieces launched by the American Immigration Council. View the interactive map here.
