Boomers: 35% of Voters in 2016

The Baby-Boom generation will account for more than one-third of voters in the 2016 presidential election, outnumbering voters in the other generations. Millennials will account for 26 percent of the total. Gen Xers will rank third, casting 20 percent of votes—more than the Silent and World War II generations combined. The oldest members of the iGeneration (aged 18 to 21) will cast their first vote for president in 2016, and they will account for just 4 percent of the total. Demo Memo calculated these figures by applying single-year-of-age citizenship and voting rates from the 2012 presidential election to the Census Bureau's 2016 population projections.

Boomers will outnumber Millennials at the polls because they will be much more likely to vote. Expect 71 percent of citizens in the Baby Boom generation to vote in 2016, equal to the voting rate of Americans in the Silent and World War II generations. A smaller 63 percent of Gen X citizens can be expected to vote. Among Millennial citizens, the voting rate should be about 54 percent. Only 38 percent of citizens in the iGeneration are expected to vote.

Percent distribution of voters in 2016 by generation
iGeneration (18 to 21): 4.3%
Millennials (22 to 39): 26.0%
Generation Xers (40 to 51): 19.8%
Baby Boomers (52 to 70): 35.3%
Older Americans (71-plus): 14.6%

Source: Demo Memo analysis based on the Census Bureau's Population Projections and Voting and Registration