How does U.S. voter turnout vary by socioeconomic status?

Santhosh Balasubramanian
2 min readJul 25, 2016

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Again, thanks to the U.S. Census Bureau, we have the data necessary to answer this question. Let’s look at registration and voting rates independently.

The clearest finding is that, across age brackets, registration rates correlate strongly with family income. Among 25–44 year olds, a $10,000 increase in family income correlates with a 3 percentage point increase in likelihood of registering to vote (r-squared = 0.89). Although this trend exists for all age brackets, the correlation is strongest and the effect most substantial for young Americans.

The same finding holds if we look at actual voting vs. just registration.

However, even if we control for income variation, it’s clear that young Americans are much less likely to vote than their elders. Indeed, because the 25–44 age bracket is so wide, and happens to correspond with the time when most Americans see the biggest gains in family income, they have the widest range in voter turnout between poorer and richer Americans in that cohort.

How might we reduce the impact of socioeconomic status on voting participation?

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