The 2020 electorate looks markedly different than it ever has, with more Hispanic than black eligible voters and nearly 10 percentage points fewer white voters than in years past, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
Nonwhites are projected to account for one-third of eligible voters, up from 24 percent in 2000, with Hispanics at 13 percent and blacks at 12.5 percent.
“We project that the 2020 election will mark the first time that Hispanics will be the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the electorate,” writes Pew’s Anthony Cilluffo and Richard Fry. “This change reflects the gradual but continuous growth in the Hispanic share of eligible voters, up from 9 percent in the 2008 presidential election and 7 percent in the 2000 election.”
The shift includes a nearly 10 percentage point decrease in eligible white voters since 2000, from 76.4 percent to 66.7 percent.
Pew explained the increase as “least partially linked to immigration and naturalization patterns: One-in-ten eligible voters in the 2020 election will have been born outside the U.S., the highest share since at least 1970.”
Pew data also showed a major swing in the overall aging of the electorate, with nearly a quarter aging up to 65 and older.