What percentage of eligible US voters voted in 2024?
Executive summary
The share of eligible Americans who cast ballots in the 2024 presidential election falls in the mid‑60s: official Census CPS tables report 65.3% voted and 73.6% were registered, while turnout estimates that use the Voting‑Eligible Population (VEP) framework cluster around 64%—making 2024 the second‑highest turnout since 1960 and slightly below 2020’s 66% [1] [2] [3].
1. What “percentage of eligible voters” means and why figures differ
“Eligible” can be measured two main ways in available reporting: the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (a large postelection survey that reports registration and self‑reported voting) and VEP‑based calculations that adjust the voting‑age population to exclude noncitizens and people ineligible under state law; these different denominators produce slightly different headline percentages—CPS shows 65.3% voted while VEP estimates by academic groups and analysts put turnout around 64% [1] [4] [3].
2. The headline numbers: Census, Pew and the Election Lab
The Census Bureau’s 2024 Voting and Registration Supplement reports that 73.6% of the voting‑age population was registered and that 65.3% voted in the presidential contest—figures widely cited in summaries of how many Americans voted [1] [5]. Independent analysts using VEP methods—such as the University of Florida Election Lab and organizations who compile VEP turnout—place national turnout at about 64–65% based on ballots counted divided by the voting‑eligible population, a standard method in political science [4] [6] [3].
3. How 2024 compares to recent history
Multiple analysts conclude 2024 was a high‑participation election historically: Pew’s validated‑voter analysis places 2024 turnout at roughly 64%, the second‑highest level in the last century after 2020’s 66% and tied with 1960 in that ranking [2]. USAFacts and Census summaries echo that 65.3% places 2024 among the highest turnouts in recent decades, though modestly lower than the extraordinary 2020 peak [5] [1].
4. Important caveats and demographic variation
Turnout is not uniform: states ranged from roughly the low‑50s to the mid‑70s percent turnout, with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire and Colorado among the highest and Hawaii, Oklahoma, Arkansas, West Virginia and Texas among the lowest in 2024 [7]. Younger voters turned out at substantially lower rates than older cohorts—youth turnout was well below older groups and below 2020 in many places—while demographic and partisan shifts also altered who participated, a pattern documented by CIRCLE, Pew and Catalist analyses [8] [2] [3].
5. What the different sources imply for the plain question asked
Answering “what percentage of eligible US voters voted in 2024?” requires naming the metric: using the Census CPS supplement, 65.3% of the voting‑age population voted and 73.6% were registered [1]; using the voting‑eligible population (VEP) convention favored by election scholars and the University of Florida Election Lab, turnout is commonly reported as about 64% [4] [3]. Both figures are supported in contemporary reporting and together give the most defensible range: roughly 64–65.3% of eligible Americans cast ballots in 2024, a historically high but slightly lower turnout than 2020 [2] [5].