{"id":262944,"date":"2025-06-26T09:56:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=262944"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:15:00","slug":"voter-turnout-2020-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2025\/06\/26\/voter-turnout-2020-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"1. Voter turnout, 2020-2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Because partisanship and voting preference are highly correlated \u2013 and most adults stick with their preferred party over time \u2013 voter turnout is often a key factor in understanding why there are changes in electoral outcomes year to year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2024 presidential election, a higher share of Donald Trump\u2019s 2020 voters than Joe Biden\u2019s 2020 voters turned out to vote. Trump also won a higher share of those who had not voted four years earlier. This is different than in 2020 and 2016, when those who didn\u2019t vote in the previous presidential election favored Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking across multiple years, White voters, older voters, more affluent voters and voters with higher levels of formal education typically turn out at higher rates than other groups. These patterns persisted in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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About this report<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This Pew Research Center analysis examines voter turnout and voting preferences in the 2024 presidential election through the lens of validated voters. Validated voters<\/strong> are adult citizens who told us that they voted in a postelection survey and<\/em> have a record showing they voted in their state\u2019s official voter turnout records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The postelection survey of U.S. adults was conducted Nov. 12-17, 2024, on the American Trends Panel (ATP). The ATP is a panel survey, meaning that we have interviewed many of the same respondents after each national election going back to 2016. This allows us to examine how individuals changed their turnout or candidate preferences over time. For more on how the study was conducted, read the report\u2019s methodology<\/a>. For more about terms used in the report, refer to the terminology box<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

How did 2024 turnout compare with previous elections?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"Chart<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 2020 and 2024 presidential contests were among the highest-turnout elections in the past century. The 66% turnout rate in 2020 was the highest since 1908, and 2024\u2019s rate of 64% was the second highest, tied with 1960. The last two midterm elections<\/a> also featured unusually high turnout levels, with rates not seen since the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spike in voter turnout is at least partly attributable to intensifying political polarization<\/a> during the past decade, a period in which growing partisan antipathy<\/a> has raised the stakes of election outcomes in the minds of many voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which party typically benefits from high turnout?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Almost by definition, high-turnout elections mobilize more infrequent and new voters. For the past several decades, high turnout often benefited Democratic candidates<\/a>, who enjoyed greater support among less-affluent, minority and young voters \u2013 groups that tend to vote at lower rates. This pattern has been weakening since 1960<\/a> but was still evident in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2024 election was different.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New and returning voters<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The 2024 Trump campaign was reported to be targeting<\/a> infrequent voters. Voters in 2024 who had not turned out in 2020, but were eligible, favored Trump by a margin of 54%-42%. (Adding in the small share of voters who were too young to have voted in 2020 narrows the margin to 52%-45%.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chart<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, Trump received 46% of the vote among 2020 voters who had not cast a ballot in 2016 but were eligible to do so; 51% voted for Biden. (Among all new and returning voters in 2020, including those too young to have voted in 2016, Biden led Trump by 52%-44%.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pattern reflects shifts in public preferences toward Trump and away from the Democratic ticket, as well as greater voter engagement among Trump supporters. Both overall and across most demographic groups in the population, Trump\u2019s 2020 voters turned out at higher rates than Biden\u2019s did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonvoters<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"Chart<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, eligible voters in 2024 who did not cast a ballot were fairly closely divided in their preferences: 44% said if they had<\/em> voted, it would have been for Trump, while 40% said they would have voted for Harris. This stands in contrast to 2020, when eligible voters who didn\u2019t vote expressed a clear preference for Biden (46% said they would have voted for Biden, 35% said they would have voted for Trump).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turnout and the 2024 election<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Among all 2020 Trump voters, 89% voted in 2024, compared with 85% among Biden\u2019s 2020 voters. The turnout difference was larger among Hispanic voters than among many other groups: 86% of Trump\u2019s 2020 Hispanic voters turned out in 2024, compared with 77% of Biden\u2019s Hispanic voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chart<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n