Black Women Have the Highest Voting Rates Among U.S. College Students

A new report from the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, details college student participation in the American democratic process. Data from the 2018 National  Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement found that voting rates of college students nearly doubled in the 2018 midterm elections compared to turnout rates in the 2014 midterms. In 2018, college student voting rates were similar to turnout rates of college students in presidential elections.

In 2018, 40 percent of all college students voted in the midterm elections, up from 19 percent in 2014. At 99 percent of the participating colleges and universities, voter turnout rates were higher. African American college students raised their voting rate by more than 18 percentage points. At HBCUs, voter turnout rates increased from 19 percent to nearly 34 percent.

Among college students, women were more likely to vote than men. Black women had the highest voting rate of any racial or ethnic group. The Black woman turnout rate was more than double the turnout rate of the lowest-performing group, Asian American men. Among college students, the voter turnout rate for Black women was 10 percentage points higher than it was for Black men.

The full report, Democracy Counts 2018: Increased Student and Institutional Engagement, may be downloaded by clicking here.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Jahnes Love.

    I am soo proud of MY College and University sisters who continue to show how important and intelligence we are at Educarional Institutions andnin Political Life. This is more reason to put forth a Vice Presidential Candidate who is Black and female and whonhas shown the power of education! Blessed lve

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