Hispanics in the 2008 Election: Virginia
Virginia’s Hispanic population is the 16th largest in the nation. More than 466,000 Hispanics reside in Virginia, 1% of all Hispanics in the United States. There are 149,000 eligible Hispanic voters in Virginia, less than 1% of all U.S. Hispanic eligible voters.1 This fact sheet provides key demographic information on Latino eligible voters.2 It also contains data on other major groups of eligible voters in Virginia, with comparative data for the U.S. All data are from the Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey.3
Hispanics in Virginia’s Eligible Voter Population
- Virginia’s population is 6% Hispanic, the 27th highest Hispanic population share nationally. New Mexico ranks first with 45%.
- Almost 3% of eligible voters in Virginia are Latinos, the 28th largest Hispanic eligible voter population share nationally. New Mexico ranks first with 38%.
- Almost one-third of Latinos in Virginia are eligible to vote, ranking 40th nationwide in the share of the Hispanic population that is eligible to vote.
Characteristics of Eligible Voters
- Virginia’s Hispanic eligible voters are younger than all eligible voters in Virginia—31% of Hispanic eligible voters in Virginia are ages 18 to 29 versus 21% of all Virginia eligible voters.
- Hispanic eligible voters in Virginia are more likely to have attended college or earned at least a bachelor’s degree than all Virginia eligible voters—62% of Hispanics versus 58% of all eligible voters in Virginia. They also have a higher level of education than all Hispanic eligible voters nationwide, only 41% of whom have attended college or earned a bachelor’s degree or more.
- Latino eligible voters in Virginia are less likely to live in an owner-occupied home than all eligible voters in Virginia—64% versus 72%.
- Hispanic eligible voters are more likely to have a household income of $75,000 or more than are all eligible voters in Virginia—48% versus 43%. In contrast, only 31% of all Hispanic eligible voters nationwide have household incomes in that range.
Characteristics of Eligible Voters in Virginia, by Race and Ethnicity
- Black eligible voters outnumber Latino eligible voters in Virginia by a margin of nearly 7 to 1—1.1 million blacks compared with 149,000 Latino eligible voters. Asian eligible voters outnumber Latinos—149,000 Latinos versus 180,000 Asians.
- Hispanic eligible voters are younger than white, black or Asian eligible voters in Virginia—31% of Hispanic eligible voters are ages 18 to 29 compared with 19% of white, 25% of black and 21% of Asian eligible voters.
- Latino eligible voters in Virginia are more likely to be citizens by birth (62%) than are Asian eligible voters (22%).
- Similar proportions of Hispanic eligible voters and white eligible voters in Virginia have household incomes of $75,000 or more—48% of Hispanics versus 47% of whites.
- In this fact sheet, eligible voters are defined as U.S. citizens ages 18 and older. Eligible voters are not the same as registered voters. To cast a vote, in all states except North Dakota, an eligible voter must first register to vote. ↩
- The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used interchangeably. References to “whites” and “blacks” are to the non-Hispanic components of those populations. ↩
- The specific data set used to derive estimates contained in this fact sheet are from the University of Minnesota’s Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) for the 2006 American Community Survey (1% sample). Information can be found on the following Website: http://usa.ipums.org/usa/. The estimates in this fact sheet are subject to sampling error. Also, estimates in this fact sheet will differ from estimates that may be published by the Census Bureau because of differences between the data used by the Census Bureau and the data it has released for public use. Further information on Census data and on sampling error in the data is available at http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/2006/AccuracyPUMS.pdf. ↩