Hispanics in the 2008 Election: Arizona
Arizona’s Hispanic population is the sixth-largest in the nation. Nearly 1.8 million Hispanics reside in Arizona, 4% of all Hispanics in the United States. There are 673,000 eligible Hispanic voters in Arizona, 4% 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 Arizona, with comparative data for the U.S. All data are from the Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey.3
Hispanics in Arizona’s Eligible Voter Population
- Arizona’s population is 29% Hispanic, the fourth-highest Hispanic population share nationally behind New Mexico with 45%, California with 36% and Texas with 36%.
- 17% of eligible voters in Arizona are Latinos, the fourth-largest Hispanic eligible voter population share nationally behind New Mexico with 38%, Texas with 25% and California with 23%.
- 37% of Latinos in Arizona are eligible to vote, ranking Arizona 29th nationwide in the share of the Hispanic population that is eligible to vote.
Characteristics of Eligible Voters
- 32% of Hispanic eligible voters in Arizona are ages 18 to 29, similar to the share of all Latino eligible voters nationwide (31%) who are in that age range. By contrast, only 22% of all Arizona eligible voters and 22% of all U.S. eligible voters are ages 18 to 29.
- 19% of Hispanic eligible voters in Arizona are naturalized U.S. citizens compared with 7% of all Arizona eligible voters. Arizona’s Hispanic eligible voters are more likely to be native-born citizens (81%) than are Hispanic eligible voters nationwide (74%).
- 28% of Latino eligible voters in Arizona have not completed high school, more than double the 13% of all Arizona eligible voters who have not completed high school.
- 67% of Arizona Hispanic eligible voters live in owner-occupied homes compared with 60% of all Hispanic eligible voters nationwide. Somewhat greater shares of all eligible voters in Arizona (72%) and all eligible voters nationwide (71%) live in owner-occupied homes.
Characteristics of Eligible Voters in Arizona, by Race and Ethnicity
- Latino eligible voters outnumber Native American eligible voters in Arizona by more than 4 to 1.
- Latino and Native American eligible voters are younger than white eligible voters in Arizona. Almost equal shares of Latinos and Native Americans (32%) are ages 18 to 29 compared with 18% of white eligible voters.
- Hispanics and Native American eligible voters in Arizona are less likely to have completed high school than Arizona white eligible voters. 28% of Arizona’s Hispanic and Native American eligible voters did not complete high school compared with 8% of white Arizona eligible voters.
- Hispanic eligible voters (67%) are more likely to live in owner-occupied homes than Native American eligible voters (57%) in Arizona, but they are less likely to do so than white Arizona eligible voters (75%).
- 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 “Native Americans” 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. ↩