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The Latino Gains in Voting and Registration Higher than Whites and Blacks in 1996

From Angelo Falcon, An Institute for Puerto Rican Policy Analysis
25 October 1997

Based on recently released figures by the Census Bureau on voting and registration in November 1996, Latinos were the only major racial-ethnic group to have significantly increased their voting numbers. The number of Latinos voting totaled 4.9 million, a 16% increased over the number voting in 1992. This compares with a less than 1% growth in black voters, a 9% decrease for whites, and an 8% decrease for the total population.

Despite this impressive gain in the number of voters, the Latino voter turnout rate as a percentage of those registered was only 75%, while in 1992 it was 83%. In 1996, the black turnout was 80%, the white turnout was 83%, and for the total population it was 83%.

Latino gains in voter registration were even greater than those in voting. Compared to 1992, there were 28% more Latinos registered in 1996. In comparison, for blacks the increase was 6%, for whites there was a drop of 0.4%, and for the total population an increase of less than 1%. There were 6.6 million Latinos registered to vote in 1996.

The result was that Latinos made up 5% of total voters in 1996. This is an increase over the 4% Latinos represented of total voters in 1988 and 1992.

The Latino voter registration rate in 1996 was 64% of the voting age population (after taking into account citizenship), one percentage point over the previous presidential election. This rate was the same as blacks (64%), but lower than that of whites (68%).

There were 18.4 million Latinos of voting age in 1996, of which 10.3 million were eligible to vote after citizenship is factored in. There were 22.5 million blacks and 162.8 million whites of voting age in that year.

Please note that for these statistics presented by the Census Bureau, Latinos may be of any race and are thus included in both the black and white figures. No statistics were presented at this time for Latino subgroups or by state.

These statistics are from the Census Bureau's Current Population Surveys, which are based on samples and are therefore subject to margins of error. Also note that since this survey provides information on self-reported rates of participation that it has been observed that there may be a 10% inflation over actual voting and registration rates.

For more information on these voting and registration statistics, contact the Fertility and Family Statistics Branch of the Census Bureau at 301-457-2445.