It’s finally happening. The Millennial Generation is overtaking the fading Baby Boom generation in its sheer size and and soon, potentially, voting power.
A new analysis found that Millennials will become the biggest generation next year and that its number of eligible voters is nearing that of Baby Boomers.
The Pew Research Center said that Census data shows that Boomers are starting to lose ground as Millennials grow. “Millennials comprised 27 percent of the voting-eligible population in 2016, while Boomers made up 31 percent,” said Pew.
In the 2016 election, 51% of Millennials voted, compared with 63% of Gen Xers and 69% of Boomers. https://t.co/L1DGI0jM7g pic.twitter.com/zO7b5uWtPg
— Ruth Igielnik (@RuthIgielnik) April 3, 2018
In 2004 there were 73 million voting eligible Boomers. It’s now 70 million and the charts provided by Pew show it turning lower.
However, while there may be 62 million voting eligible Millennials, they still trail Boomers and the older Silent Generation in actually turning out to vote, long a knock on the generation.
In 2016, for example, 51 percent voted. By comparison, 69 percent of Boomers went to the polls.
Said Pew:
Turnout among Millennials was higher in 2016 – 51%. But again, that’s significantly lower than the 61% of the electorate who voted. In order for their voting clout to match their share of the electorate, roughly 61% of Millennials would have to have turned out to vote in 2016.
While it may be a slam-dunk that Millennials will soon be the largest generation in the electorate, it will likely be a much longer time before they are the largest bloc of voters.
