The electorate in this year’s elections will be the most diverse and well-educated electorate in the history of the United States. Nationwide, non-Hispanic whites without a college degree were a slight majority of all voters in 2010 (51.0%), but by 2018 had fallen to just 44.6% of all voters. At the same time, Hispanic, Asian American, and Black/African American voting blocs have all increased. All told, the number of non-Hispanic white voters without a college degree shrank by almost 5.5 million between 2010 and 2018, while the number of non-white voters increased by more than 15.3 million and the number of non-Hispanic white voters with a college degree increased by almost 8.5 million. This change occurred all across the country. Every single state saw the share of non-Hispanic whites overall shrink between 2000 and 2018, our data also shows that non-Hispanic whites without a college degree also shrank as a share of every state’s electorate as well between 2010 and 2018.
Table 1: U.S. Electorate by Race/Ethnicity Source 2010 and 2018 American Community Survey, 1-Year Samples.
Eligible Voters, 2010
Share of Electorate, 2010
Eligible Voters, 2018
Share of Electorate, 2018
Change in Eligible Voters, 2010-2018
Change in Share of Electorate, 2010-2018
Non-Hispanic White
154,477,000
71.9%
157,495,000
67.5%
+3,019,000
-4.4%
---Non-Hispanic White, With College Degree
44,886,000
20.9%
53,371,000
22.9%
+8,485,000
+2.0%
---Non-Hispanic White, No College Degree
109,591,000
51.0%
104,124,000
44.6%
-5,467,000
-6.4%
Black/African American
26,235,000
12.2%
29,159,000
12.5%
+2,924,000
+0.3%
Asian
7,921,000
3.7%
10,513,000
4.5%
+2,592,000
+0.8%
Hispanic
21,509,000
10.0%
29,684,000
12.7%
+8,174,000
+2.7%
Other
4,829,000
2.2%
6,479,000
2.8%
+1,650,000
+0.5%
Total
214,972,000
233,331,000
+18,358,000
Table 2: U.S. Electorate by Nativity, 2010-2018 Source: 2010 and 2018 American Community Survey, 1-Year Sample.
Eligible Voters, 2010
Share of Electorate, 2010
Eligible Voters, 2018
Share of Electorate, 2018
Change in Eligible Voters, 2010-2018
U.S.-Born
198,129,000
92.2%
211,670,000
90.7%
+13,541,000
Foreign-Born
16,844,000
7.8%
21,660,000
9.3%
+4,817,000
- Non-Hispanic whites without a college degree went from being a majority of the electorate in 2010 (51.0%) to less than half (44.6%) of all eligible voters, a decrease of 6.4 percentage points in their share of the electorate.
- The Hispanic share of the electorate now stands at 12.7%, an increase of almost 3 percentage points since 2010. Hispanics now make up the largest minority group in the U.S. electorate, with 29.7 million eligible voters.
- The Asian American share of the electorate also increased, reaching 4.5%. Today, there are more than 10.5 million Asian American eligible voters in the United States.
- The African American share of the electorate also increased between 2010 and 2010, reaching 12.5%, a modest increase of 0.3 percentage points. In total, there are more than 29.5 million African American eligible voters.
- Immigrant voters also saw significant growth. There are more than 21.7 million foreign-born eligible voters, an increase of more than 4.8 million from 2010. Today, immigrant voters make up 9.3% of the electorate, or more than 1 out of every 11 voters.
- The largest increase, however, was among college-educated eligible voters. Since 2010 almost 14.7 million additional college-educated voters have joined the electorate. Today, more than 3 out of 10 eligible voters (30.5%) hold at least a bachelor’s degree. As recently as 2010, only 26.3% of the electorate had a college education.
Data on the changing electorate in swing states and in individual states is also available.
