Voting by Income

Voting rates don't just rise with income, they rise in lockstep with income. Overall, 59.7 percent of citizens aged 18 or older voted in the 2008 presidential election. Here are the 2008 voting rates by family income...

Under $30,000: 54.0%
$30,000-$49,999: 63.3%
$50,000-$74,999: 70.9%
$75,000-$99,999: 76.4%
$100,000-$149,999: 78.4%
$150,000 or more: 81.6%

Burrowing even deeper into the data, the lowest voting rate is among 18-to-24-year-olds with family incomes below $30,000 (41.5 percent). The highest voting rate is among 65-to-74-year-olds with incomes of $100,000 or more (85.8 percent). Voting rates aren't everything, however. Numbers count. Despite the difference in voting rates, young low-income voters edged out old high-income voters at the polls, 1.7 million to 1.3 million.

Source: Census Bureau, Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2008