Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Hispanics in the 2008 Election: Colorado

Colorado’s Hispanic population is eighth-largest in the nation. More than 927,000 Hispanics reside in Colorado, 2% of all Hispanics in the United States. There are over 404,000 eligible Hispanic voters in Colorado, 2% 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 Colorado, with comparative data for the U.S. All data are from the Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey.3

Hispanics in Colorado’s Eligible Voter Population

  • Colorado’s population is 20% Hispanic, the seventh-highest Hispanic population share nationally. New Mexico ranks first with 45%.
  • 12% of eligible voters in Colorado are Latinos, the sixth-largest Hispanic eligible voter population share nationally. New Mexico ranks first with 38%, followed by Texas with 25% and California with 23%.
  • 44% of Latinos in Colorado are eligible to vote, ranking Colorado 21st nationwide in the share of the Hispanic population that is eligible to vote.

Characteristics of Eligible Voters

  • 30% of Hispanic eligible voters in Colorado are ages 18 to 29, similar to the share for all Latino eligible voters nationwide (31%). A greater share of Coloradan Hispanic eligible voters are in that age range than are all Colorado (22%) and all U.S. (22%) eligible voters.

  • A greater share of Hispanic eligible voters in Colorado (11%) are naturalized U.S. citizens compared with all Colorado eligible voters (4%) and all eligible voters in the U.S. (7%). By contrast, 89% of Coloradan Hispanic eligible voters are citizens by birth compared with just 74% of all Hispanic eligible voters nationwide.
  • 26% of Latino eligible voters in Colorado have not completed high school, similar to the share of all Latino eligible voters nationwide (27%). However 10% of all Coloradan eligible voters and 14% of all eligible voters nationwide have not completed high school.
  • 61% of Latino eligible voters in Colorado live in owner-occupied homes, a similar share as for all Latino eligible voters in the U.S. By contrast, a lesser share of Latino eligible voters in Colorado live in owner-occupied homes than do all eligible voters nationwide (71%).

Characteristics of Eligible Voters in Colorado, by Race and Ethnicity

  • White eligible voters outnumber Hispanic eligible voters in Colorado by more than 6 to 1.

  • Latino eligible voters are younger than white eligible voters in Colorado. Among Latino eligible voters, 30% are ages 18 to 29 compared with 21% of white eligible voters.
  • Hispanic eligible voters are less likely than white eligible voters in Colorado to live in owner-occupied homes—61% versus 75%.
  1. 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.
  2. The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used interchangeably. References to “whites” are to the non-Hispanic component of that population.
  3. 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.

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