- Author: nbcnews.com by Suzanne Gamboa
In the next presidential election, 32 million Hispanics will be eligible to vote, just slightly more than the 30 million voters who are black.
For the first time, Hispanics are on track to be the largest racial or ethnic group to be eligible to vote in a presidential election, according to data on the 2020 electorate released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.
By 2020, 32 million Hispanics will be eligible to vote, just slightly more than the 30 million voters who are black. For Asians, the population is expected to be about 11 million, more than double what it was in 2000.
According to Pew, Hispanics are projected to be about 13.3 percent of the electorate in 2020, which would make them the largest racial or ethnic minority of the electorate for the first time. In 2016, Hispanics were 11.9 percent of the electorate; African-Americans were 12.5 percent and are projected to remain the same in 2020.
Voters who are of Asian descent are projected to be about 4.7 percent of the electorate.
White voters will continue to make up the largest share of the electorate, 66.7 percent, but the Latino and Asian growth mean that in 2020 about a third of eligible voters will be nonwhite.
Immigration is playing a role, although it is a small one. One-in-10 eligible voters will be foreign-born in 2020, the highest share since 1970.
The share that is eligible to vote does not necessarily transfer to turnout. In recent elections, black voters were “substantially more likely” than Hispanics to vote, Pew stated.
The number of Latinos who don't vote, in fact, has been greater than the number who do in every presidential election since 1996, according to Pew.
Also projected for 2020:
- One-in-10 eligible voters will be members of Generation Z, the generation younger than millennials, who will be 18 to 23 next year.
- Nearly a quarter, 23 percent of the electorate, will be 65 and older, the highest share since the Baby Boom.
- The millennial share of the electorate is increasing because of foreign-born millennials who are naturalizing to become citizens, but they will account for a slightly smaller share of the electorate than in 2016.
Source: Published originally on nbcnews.com, Latinos on track to be largest share of nonwhite voters in 2020, Pew says, by Suzanne Gamboa, January 30th, 2019.
- Author: NBC Latino
According to the national survey, fewer than half of all Americans say the country has made substantial progress toward racial equality. When it comes to Latinos, around 43 percent of Latinos say that the U.S. has made “a lot” of progress in the past 50 years to achieving Martin Luther King’s dream. Meanwhile, slightly more — 48 percent of Hispanics — think “a lot” more has to be done to achieve racial equality.
Latinos’ perspectives aren’t too far off from the rest of country’s. Fewer than half — or 45 percent — of all Americans think the country has made substantial progress toward racial equality. About the same amount, 49 percent of all Americans, think “a lot” more remains to be done.
The report also examined group relations in the United States and found that the majority of whites, black and Hispanics get along well with each other. Three-quarters of white Americans say that their group and Hispanics get along well — a view largely shared by 74 percent of Hispanics. According to the findings, the relationship between whites and Latinos fares slightly better than the relationship between blacks and Hispanics. Six in ten Hispanics say the two groups get along well compared to 78 percent of blacks.
Overall, the survey hints at improving relationships between Hispanics and other races. Since the question was last asked in a 2009 Pew survey, the proportion of Americans saying whites and Hispanics got along well increased from 67 percent to 74 percent. The proportion that say blacks and Hispanics got along well also increased, from 48 percent to 54 percent.
Despite progress on race relations, at least one in five Latinos say they have personally experienced discrimination.
The demographic and economic data provides a mixed picture of Latinos’ well-being in recent decades. The income gap between Hispanics and whites has remained unchanged since 2007. The number of Latinos owning homes has also slightly dropped since 2007, when Hispanic homeownership was at 66 percent that of whites. Meanwhile, Latino students have slightly bridged the high school completion gap. In 2012, the Hispanic rate was 70 percent that of the white rate, compared to 54 percent back in 1971, when data on Latinos first became available.
Source: Published originally on NBC Latino as What do Latinos think of state of race relations today? New study releases findings,by Jacquellena Carrero, August 22, 2013.