Latinos account for half of the growth in new eligible voters since the last presidential election cycle in 2020, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.
There are now 36.2 million eligible Hispanic voters in 2024, up from 32.3 million in 2020. Latinos are now almost 15% of the nation’s eligible electorate.
A narrow majority of all U.S. Latinos in 2022 were eligible to vote (53%), but ahead of these elections there are big variations within the different states. In New Mexico, 66% of Hispanics can vote, compared to states like Tennessee, where it’s 36%, and Maryland 39%.
In fact, almost two-thirds of the nation’s eligible Latino voters live in only five states: California, Texas, Florida, New York and Arizona.
Eligible Latino voters are also younger than other groups: While 48% of all eligible voters are over 50, the figure is only 33% for Hispanics.
Despite the group’s relative youth compared to other voter blocs, and although 19% of Latinos are not U.S. citizens, about 1.4 million Hispanics become eligible to vote every year.
“Latinos continue to be a large and fast-growing part of the U.S. electorate,” Pew Research senior writer and editor Jens Manuel Krogstad told NBC News. “They reflect the Latino population overall in the sense that a substantial number of young adults and immigrants will be eligible to vote this year.”
