---
title: "The Latino Electorate in 2010: More Voters, More Non-Voters"
description: "The number of Latino eligible voters increased in 2010, from 13.2 million in 2000 to 21.3 million, but only 6.6 million actually voted in that year's elections."
date: "2011-09-30"
authors:
  - name: "Russell Heimlich"
    job_title: "Former web developer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/russell-heimlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2011/09/30/the-latino-electorate-in-2010-more-voters-more-non-voters-2/"
---

# The Latino Electorate in 2010: More Voters, More Non-Voters

The number of Latino eligible voters increased in 2010, from 13.2 million in 2000 to 21.3 million. About 6.6 million Latinos voted in last year’s election -— a record for a midterm -— according to an analysis of new Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center. That made Latinos a larger share of the electorate in 2010 than in any previous midterm election, representing 6.9% of all voters, up from 5.8% in 2006. However, even though more Latinos than ever are participating in the nation’s elections, their representation among the electorate remains below their representation in the general population. In 2010, 16.3% of the nation’s population was Latino, but only 10.1% of eligible voters and fewer than 7% of voters were Latino.

The gap was driven by two demographic factors -— youth and non-citizenship. More than one third of Latinos (34.9%) are younger than the voting age of 18. And an additional 22.4% are of voting age, but are not U.S. citizens. As a result, the share of the Latino population eligible to vote is smaller than it is among any other group. Just 42.7% of the nation’s Latino population is eligible to vote, while more than three-in-four (77.7%) of whites, two-thirds of blacks (67.2%) and more than half of Asians (52.8%) are eligible to vote. However, even among eligible voters, Latino participation rates lag those of other groups. In 2010, 31.2% of Latino eligible voters say they voted, while nearly half (48.6%) of white eligible voters and 44.0% of black eligible voters said the same. [Read More](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/reports/report.php?ReportID=141&src=prc-number)