Nearly 30% of Young Adults Voted in the 2022 Midterm Election. Will Gen Z Exceed That in 2026?

Every elec­tion sea­son, much pub­lic dis­cus­sion focus­es on vot­er turnout, par­tic­u­lar­ly for young adults who have demon­strat­ed impres­sive civic engage­ment in recent elec­tions. Accord­ing to the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter, 28% of young adults ages 18 to 24 vot­ed in the 2022 midterm elec­tions, a dip from 2018’s his­toric 32% turnout rate for this age group but much high­er than in 2014 (17%) and all pre­vi­ous midterms this cen­tu­ry. The num­ber of young adults who vote has also grown sub­stan­tial­ly since the ear­ly 2000s — from about 4.8 mil­lion in 2002 to near­ly 7.4 mil­lion in 2022.

Young Adults Ages 18 to 24 Who Vot­ed in Midterm Elec­tions, 2002–2022 (Per­cent)

Youth civic engage­ment activists and lead­ers are work­ing hard to build on this momen­tum in 2026, with a focus on Gen­er­a­tion Z, cur­rent­ly span­ning ages 14 to 29. Mem­bers of this gen­er­a­tion made up near­ly one-tenth of the 2022 vot­ing elec­torate and have grown to almost 50 mil­lion eli­gi­ble vot­ers ages 18 to 29 in 2026. About 9 in 10 adult Gen Zers say they are will­ing to vote, accord­ing to a nation­al sur­vey in 2026.

Trends for Young Adult Vot­ing in Pres­i­den­tial Elections

Gen­er­al­ly, turnout in pres­i­den­tial elec­tions is much high­er for all vot­ing age groups — includ­ing young adults — com­pared to midterms. Around half of young peo­ple ages 18 to 24 vot­ed in the last two pres­i­den­tial elec­tions: 48% in 2024 and 51% in 2020, up from 43% in 2016. The youth vote in pres­i­den­tial elec­tions has large­ly trend­ed upward since the turn of the cen­tu­ry. In num­bers, young adult turnout has increased from about 8.6 mil­lion in 2000 to 13.2 mil­lion in 2024.

It is crit­i­cal to main­tain these gains in active young vot­ers, as they are impor­tant civic par­tic­i­pants, and empow­er­ing them to vote ben­e­fits their lives and our democracy.

State Dif­fer­ences in Young Adult Vot­er Turnout

Over the last two-plus decades, most states with avail­able data saw increas­es in young adult vot­er turnout in both the midterm (2002–2022) and pres­i­den­tial (2000–2024) elec­tions. How­ev­er, turnout varies wide­ly from state to state and elec­tion to elec­tion with­in each state.

In the 2022 midterm, only 1 in 7 young adults vot­ed in Nebras­ka and West Vir­ginia (both 14%), com­pared to near­ly half in Wis­con­sin (49%), Michi­gan (46%) and Ore­gon (45%). In the pre­vi­ous 2018 midterm, young adults were cred­it­ed for their extra­or­di­nary civic engage­ment, with all states achiev­ing youth turnout rates above 20%, among those with avail­able data.

In 2024, state esti­mates of young adults who vot­ed in the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion ranged from around one-third in Ari­zona (32%) and Okla­homa (34%) to two-thirds in Min­neso­ta and Wis­con­sin (both 66%). 

Why Does Vot­ing and Civic Engage­ment Mat­ter for Young Adults?

When young peo­ple play an active role in elec­tions or oth­er pol­i­cy change efforts, they devel­op skills and knowl­edge, and they become empow­ered to help shape their futures, strength­en their com­mu­ni­ties and con­tribute to democ­ra­cy. In elec­tions, they vote to fur­ther poli­cies and pri­or­i­ties that they believe will help them and their fam­i­lies suc­ceed, whether it is relat­ed to eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty, health­care, hous­ing, edu­ca­tion, cer­tain rights, equal­i­ty, cli­mate change or oth­er issues. Civic engage­ment cre­ates valu­able lead­er­ship skills, which can help youth and young adults thrive through­out their lives.

Learn More on Youth and Young Adult Civic Engage­ment & Oth­er Issues

These data on vot­ing trends will con­tin­ue to be updat­ed in the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter, along with more than 60 oth­er indi­ca­tors about youth and young adults, includ­ing teen par­tic­i­pa­tion in com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice or vol­un­teer work. This dataset is part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Thrive by 25 focus, which works to ensure that all young peo­ple have what they need to real­ize their full potential.

Explore more of our resources relat­ed to this top­ic and Gen­er­a­tion Z:

• Ear­ly Lessons in Engag­ing Youth and Adults in Com­mu­ni­ty Change Efforts
• How Young Adults View Social Con­nect­ed­ness and Access Resources
• Case Stud­ies for Sup­port­ing Youth Lead­er­ship and Eco­nom­ic Opportunity
• A Nation­al Pro­file of Youth and Young Adults
• What the Sta­tis­tics Say About Gen­er­a­tion Z
• Gen Z Char­ac­ter­is­tics: Who They Are & What Defines Gen Z
• Social Issues That Mat­ter to Gen­er­a­tion Z
• Gen­er­a­tion Z and Education

Access demo­graph­ic data about Gen Z in the KIDS COUNT Data Center:

• Gen Z pop­u­la­tion size, by race and ethnicity
• Gen Zers liv­ing in pover­ty com­pared to oth­er generations
• Gen Zers in pover­ty, by race and ethnicity
• Gen Zers liv­ing in low-income house­holds com­pared to oth­er generations
• Gen Zers in low-income house­holds, by race and ethnicity

In addi­tion, the Cen­ter for Infor­ma­tion and Research on Civic Learn­ing & Engage­ment (CIR­CLE) at Tufts Uni­ver­si­ty, a non­par­ti­san research orga­ni­za­tion focused on youth civic engage­ment, is a use­ful resource on this topic.

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