Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority group in the US, and greater attention has been placed on the Hispanic vote over the past few election cycles.[1] In 2020, around 13% of citizens over 18 were Hispanic, and Hispanic voters cast around 11% of ballots, according to Census data.
Hispanic voters are younger on average, turn out at lower rates, and are most concentrated among states near the American Southwest.
Where are most Hispanic voters located?
Hispanic Americans hold the highest shares of the voting-age citizen population in states along the US-Mexico border. New Mexico had the highest, with 36% of this demographic identifying as Hispanic, followed by California, Texas, and Arizona. In 2020, these four states, in addition to Nevada and Florida, had at least 20% of eligible voters identify as Hispanic.
These states also had the greatest Hispanic vote share in 2020. In four states (New Mexico, California, Texas, and Arizona), more than 20% of votes cast in 2020 were by Hispanic citizens. Maine had the least, with less than 1% of votes cast by Hispanic voters.
However, Hispanic voters were underrepresented relative to their share of the voting-age citizen population. In New Mexico, California, and Texas, the Hispanic vote share was 5 percentage points lower than their share of the voting-age citizen population.
How does the age of Hispanic voters compare with other groups?
Hispanic voters tend to skew younger than the overall voting population.
In the 2020 election, 53% of all Hispanic voters were under 44 years-old, compared with 40% of overall voters. This amounted to around 8.8 million votes cast by Hispanic voters under 44 years-old.
How does turnout among Hispanic voters compare with other racial and ethnic groups?
In 2020, 53.7% of Hispanic citizens of voting age cast a ballot. This was the highest voter turnout among Hispanic Americans since turnout data by race or ethnicity group was first collected in 1978.Despite the increase, Hispanics still had the lowest turnout among all racial and ethnic groups. Total turnout among voting-age citizens was 67%, 13 percentage points higher than Hispanic turnout. This is not a new trend. Since 2004, Hispanic voter turnout has always been at least 13 percentage points lower than overall voter turnout.
How does turnout differ between Hispanic men and women?
Across all racial and ethnic groups, women vote at higher rates than men. This trend is consistent among Hispanic voters, where 63% of eligible Hispanic women registered to vote in 2020, compared with 59% of eligible Hispanic men. About 56% of eligible Hispanic women turned out in the 2020 election, compared with 51% of eligible Hispanic men. This 5 percentage point gap was slightly higher than the overall gender voting gap of 3 percentage points.
Hispanic voters are far from a monolith. But having accounted for over one in 10 of all ballots cast in 2020, Hispanic voters will undoubtedly play a large role in the upcoming midterm elections.
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[1] The US federal government defines the term “Hispanic” as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture regardless of race.
