According to the Census Bureau, 65.3% of US citizens voted in the 2024 election, the third-highest turnout in the past 34 years. Turnout increased by 13.1 percentage points since the most recent mid-term elections in 2022, but decreased by 1.5 percentage points since the 2020 presidential election.
How did 2024 turnout compare between demographic groups?
Female voters voted at a higher rate than male voters in 2024, 61.0% vs. 57.4%. This was a continuation of a 44-year trend: the last time men had a higher voter turner rate than women was 1976.
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It’s important to note, however, that the Census Bureau only provides this data as a percent of total population, not of registered voters.
In 2024, 74.7% of voters ages 65 or older voted, the highest rate among all age groups. The voters were also the only age group with a higher turnout than in 2020. Less than half of voters ages 18 to 24 voted, and were the least likely age group to vote in 2024.
Turnout declined across all racial and ethnic groups in the 2024 presidential election. However, white, non-Hispanic citizens had the smallest decline since 2020. They also voted at the highest rate: 70.5%.
The Black voter turnout rate was the second highest rate at 59.6%, though down 3.0 percentage points since 2020.
Hispanic voters had the lowest turnout rate in 2024 at 50.6% and declined 3.1%, the biggest drop among the racial and ethnic identities measured.
Turnout also varies regarding a citizen’s disability status. Citizens without a disability voted at a rate of 66.0% while turnout was lower among people with a disability status related to self-care difficulties (48.1%), cognitive abilities (51.6%), and vision (59.7%). Citizens with hearing difficulty had a turnout of 69.4%.
Which states had the highest and lowest voter turnout?
Minnesota had the highest turnout with 75.9% of citizens casting a ballot. It was followed by Oregon (75.3%), Virginia (72.9%), and New Jersey (72.5%). However, Washington, DC, had a turnout rate higher than that of any state: 79.5%.
Citizens in Arkansas turned out the least, at a rate of 52.8%.
Eight other states had turnout rates below 60%:
- Texas (57.9%)
- Louisiana (58.0%)
- Hawaii (58.5%)
- Alabama (58.7%)
- South Dakota (58.9%)
- New York (59.2%)
- West Virginia (59.5%)
- Oklahoma (59.7%).
Are there voting trends by employment status?
Government workers voted at the highest rate (75.7%) among all types of employment measured by the Census. People employed in the private sector were less engaged at 65.7%. Just over half of people who were experiencing unemployment were the least engaged in voting, as just over half voted in 2024.
Who voted in person in 2024? Who mailed ballots?
Most of the votes cast in the 2024 election were cast in person. In-person on Election Day voting made up 39.6% of votes cast, while 30.7% of in-person voting happened before Election Day.
Despite in-person on Election Day voting being the top method in 2024, it was a net 20 percentage points lower than in the 2018 midterms (the last major voting day before the COVID-19 pandemic).
Early in-person voting was nearly twice as common in 2024 (30.7%) as it was in 2018 (16.6%).
Meanwhile, mail-in voting became less common. In 2024, 29.0% of votes cast were by mail, compared to 43.0% in 2020. Mail-in voting is regionally based, as eight states and Washington, DC, have moved to mostly mail-in elections.
Most of the mail-in only states are in the Western US. As a result, 73.5% of 2024 voters in this region voted by mail.
Why did people choose not to vote?
Over half of the adult population did not vote in 2024 because they were either not interested (19.7%), too busy (17.8%), or did not like the candidates or campaign issues (14.7%). Not being interested was also the top reason for not voting in 2020.
The most common characteristics of people who were disinterested in voting included: living in the Western US (26.6% of people not interested), household incomes of $10,000 to $14,999 (24.9%), or Black racial identities (23.9%).
People ages 18 to 24 were the least likely to vote among all age groups, and over half of them were either too busy (22.3%), not interested (20.4%) or were out of town (14.1%). Illness was the top reason that people ages 65 and older did not vote.
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