Data Viz | Politics | Demographics

REPRESENTING US:
Voter profile tools

 

by ANDI EGBERT and KRISTINE LIAO | Feb. 3, 2020 | UPDATED: Nov. 17, 2020

In this fifth release of Representing US, we’ve updated our interactive Voter Profile Tools with the latest available data on the demographic and economic characteristics of the potential electorate—from education and poverty levels, to racial and immigrant make-up, and more. Utilizing new data released in September 2020 by the U.S. Census Bureau, these tools give us the most up-to-date profile of the people who decided the 2020 elections.

Despite the difficulties that came with holding an election in the middle of a pandemic, the 2020 U.S. presidential election witnessed the highest voter turnout in 120 years. As of Nov. 16, the United States Elections Project reported a 66.6% voter turnout rate among the eligible population, with a total of more than 159 million ballots counted.

Each one of these votes helped determine the outcomes of this election, including all 435 seats of the House of Representatives (although a handful remain yet uncalled), 33 races in the Senate (another two have yet to be decided), and, of course, President-elect Joe Biden. The APM Research Lab’s nonpartisan Representing US tools provide essential context for understanding these races by exploring the differences in the eligible voting populations of each state and congressional district.

Each of the six tools below represents the same data differently; change the drop-down menus to reset the views. Explore our Voter Profile Tools below or read select findings from our analysis.

GRID SCALED BY ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES, ALL STATES AND WASHINGTON, D.C.

Source: APM Research Lab analysis and data visualization of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey.
Notes: "Potential voters" are defined as citizens age 18+. Some groups had too few people in the survey to create reliable estimates, and appear as no data. They should not be interpreted as zero but rather a small number.

PROPORTIONAL GRID, ALL CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS

Source: APM Research Lab analysis and data visualization of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey.
Notes: "Potential voters" are defined as citizens age 18+. Some groups had too few people in the survey to create reliable estimates, and appear as no data. They should not be interpreted as zero but rather a small number.

TRADITIONAL MAP, ALL STATES AND WASHINGTON, D.C.

Source: APM Research Lab analysis and data visualization of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey.
Notes: "Potential voters" are defined as citizens age 18+. Some groups had too few people in the survey to create reliable estimates, and appear as no data. They should not be interpreted as zero but rather a small number.

TRADITIONAL MAP, ALL CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS

Source: APM Research Lab analysis and data visualization of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey.
Notes: "Potential voters" are defined as citizens age 18+. Some groups had too few people in the survey to create reliable estimates, and appear as no data. They should not be interpreted as zero but rather a small number.

SORTING TOOL, ALL CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS AND STATES

Source: APM Research Lab analysis and data visualization of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey.
Notes: "Potential voters" are defined as citizens age 18+. Some groups had too few people in the survey to create reliable estimates, and appear as no data. They should not be interpreted as zero but rather a small number.

MY CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT AND STATE TABLE

Source: APM Research Lab analysis and data visualization of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey.
Notes: "Potential voters" are defined as citizens age 18+. Some groups had too few people in the survey to create reliable estimates, and appear as N/A (not available) in this table. They should not be interpreted as zero but rather a small number.

SELECT FINDINGS FROM THE VOTER PROFILE TOOLS

These tools contain many more insights, but we’ve summarized some key findings below. Click the headings to expand and read key take-aways.

NOTES ABOUT USE OF THESE VOTER PROFILE TOOLS

On social media, please use the hashtag #RepresentingUS. You may freely use data and images from this page. Please include the following citation and link:

Source: APM Research Lab, Representing US 2020. [www.apmresearchlab.org/representingus/2020profiles].

If you wish to embed these tools, please contact us at info@apmresearchlab.org. You may view our earlier releases of Representing US tools elsewhere on our website or in our Tableau gallery.

How to interact with these tools
If map or graph doesn’t generate, be sure you have made all selections at right.
To zoom in and out of the Traditional Map, hover over the map and use your mouse scroll wheel, or enter a state in the magnifying glass field to zoom to it. Click the home icon (at upper left) or refresh your browser page to reset the view.
The Sort Districts & States bar graph may be resorted (high-to-low, low-to-high, or alphabetically) by clicking the sort icon (three stacked bars) at the bottom of the view.
In all views, additional data appears in the tool-tip, which appears if you rest your mouse over a district in a map, bar in a graph, or cell in the grid.
Data may be displayed as a percentage or a number (estimate) by changing the “Number/Percent” dropdown menu at the upper right of each view. Data for “Median household income” and “All potential voters” will only appear if you select “Number.”
Click here if you do not know your U.S. House district to locate it by your zip code, or use the magnifying glass icon on the map view to identify district(s) associated with a zip code, city, state, or other geography.
Data sources and notes
All data sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey (latest). Additional calculations by APM Research Lab. All data are for “potential voters” only—not all residents. “Potential voters” are defined as citizens of voting age (18 or above). We have not made further adjustments for felon status.
Within the “Characteristics” dropdown menu, the data for “White people” represent Whites who are also non-Hispanic. The data for “Asian people,” “Black people,” “Indigenous people,” and “Pacific Islander people” are those who identify as a single race only, although “Latinos” may be of any race. All multiracial people are shown in “Multiracial people” only. These race definitions were decided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The missing data on some measures in some geographies reflects data that has been suppressed by the U.S. Census Bureau due to small population sizes or unreliable estimates. They appear as no data (blanks or N/A) in these tools, but should not be interpreted as zero people of a particular characteristic.
“Median income” refers to the median income of the household in which one or more potential voters live. Households containing no potential voters are excluded from this calculation.
Rankings (e.g., #1 out of 435 districts) are based upon data point estimates. Identical estimates (e.g., 50.5% and 50.5% in two separate districts) appear as ties occupying the same position (such as #14) in the ranking. Some characteristics have numerous ties. Rankings do not account for margins of error that may effectively result in additional ties. They are meant to provide a general sense of a district’s place among its peers. Across all characteristics, #1 refers to the district with the highest value and #435 the lowest value.
Margins of error (for a 90% confidence interval) are available in the tool-tip for all data. In the case of APM Research Lab aggregations, we have calculated new margins of error.
Please email us at info@apmresearchlab.org with any additional questions about these tools.