Trendspotting: College Students Turned Up to Vote in 2020

NewsWire: 11/4/21

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• In 2020, voter turnout among college students rose to 66%. That’s much higher than the 53% of this group who voted in 2016, with voter registration rates and voter yield rates rising as well. (Tisch College of Civic Life)
• NH: In 2020, U.S. voter turnout rose to the highest share in a presidential election--nearly 67%--in living memory. (See “2020 Voter Turnout Was the Highest in 120 Years.”) And according to a new analysis from Tufts University, college students also voted at a comparable rate (66%).
• If anything, this is even more impressive. The 66% of college students who voted was up 13 percentage points from 2016. Turnout among all eligible voters, in contrast, rose by 6 percentage points. The share of students registered to vote also rose (from 76% to 83%), along with the student yield rate (the share of newly registered students who went on to vote). This jumped from 69% to 80%.
• The data also show a surprising pattern by age. In typical election years, voting likelihood increases with age--even among youth. But in the 2020 election, turnout surged among younger college students by double digits, putting them ahead of students in their mid- and late 20s. Turnout rates jumped the most among 18- to 20-year-olds, who were voting in their first federal election.

• Why would late-wave Millennials turn out in greater numbers than early-wave Millennials? In previous elections, Millennials have shown themselves to be more civically engaged than the last generation of youth according to several indicators, including voting rates. Ever since 2008, they have driven youth turnout to levels not seen since the early 1990s. But surveys suggest that the youngest Millennials and early-wave Homelanders are even more politically engaged. They’re more likely, for example, to say that they have volunteered for a political campaign, participated in a public protest, and posted on social media about environmental, political, or social issues.
• The 2024 election will be the first presidential election in which Homelanders (born 2005 and later) will vote. It would not surprise me if the same turnout pattern holds for young adults—with the newest voters even more engaged than those who came before them.