The 2020 presidential election is more than a year away, but the electorate is coming into view—and it’s more diverse than ever.
One-third of eligible voters will be non-white in 2020, according to new data from Pew Research Center.
Latinos will be the largest minority group in the electorate, surpassing African-Americans for the first time. Pew projects that Latinos will account for around 32 million eligible voters, or 13% of the electorate, up from 7% in the 2000 election. There will be 30 million African-American voters, meanwhile, remaining at a constant share of about 12% since 2000. Asians will also constitute a larger share of the voting population, reaching approximately 11 million—more than double the 5 million eligible in 2000.
The increased share of minority voters is at least partially driven by immigration. One in 10 eligible voters in 2020 will have been born outside of the U.S., the highest share in at least 50 years.
The change is also hastened by Generation Z, many of whom will be voting for the first time in 2020. Generation Z, or those born after 1996, is the most ethnically diverse in American history—only 55% of the generation is white.