Registered Voters in Central PA

Transcription

1 221 West Philadelphia Street Suite 19 York, PA

2 ABOUT ROCK ROCK Commercial Real Estate publishes a weekly column entitled MORETidbits which takes national news, data and statistics that are relevant to real estate, business, and economics and gives the information a local Central Pennsylvania perspective. ROCK is an industry leader in Commercial Real Estate with core focuses on Brokerage Advisory, Management Solutions, Research & Mapping, and Strategic Consulting. Our mission is to deliver unparalleled commercial real estate services through a TEAM of professionals who focus on Thinking Ahead and Getting Results that create value, build confidence, and embrace personal relationships.

3 In the United States, every citizen over the age of 18 has the right to vote. This is one principle that helps to define our nation as a democracy and often is a right that is taken for granted. As of July 1, 2015, there were 219 million Americans eligible to vote. Approximately 66.8% of that population were registered voters. REGISTERED VOTERS IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA According to recent numbers, the State of Pennsylvania has just over 8 million registered voters. About 17% of that population currently resides in the nine Central Pennsylvania Counties which include Adams, Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, and York. Overall, Central PA has a total of just under 1.4 million registered voters which represents about 76.1% of the population over the age of 18 years old. Lancaster County has the highest number of registered voters (308,000) out of each of the nine counties, however Dauphin County has the highest percentage of population over the age of 18 who are registered to vote (81.6%). The chart below displays the total number of registered voters in the Central Pennsylvania Counties as well as the percentage of population over 18 years old that are registered voters. The blue bars represent the number of voters, while the red blocks represent the percentage of population.

4 POLITICAL DENOMINATIONS IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA When looking at political denomination, we see that the Republican party dominates Central Pennsylvania's registered voter population. There are just under 670,000 Republicans (representing 48% of the total voters) in the region. There are more Republicans in just about all of the Central PA counties, except for Berks and Dauphin Counties, where there are more registered Democrats. NEW VOTERS IN 2015 Thus far in 2015, Central Pennsylvania has picked up 19,500 new voters. On average, this means that about 2,789 new voters have been registered per month (January through July). By comparison, this number is about 6% less than the average in 2014, but 8% higher that the average in Of the new voters this year, 6,500 have registered as democrats, 7,500 as Republicans, and 5,900 as other. The pie chart above shows the breakdown of registered voters by political denomination in Central Pennsylvania overall. The chart above displays the percentage of new registered voters by their political denominations. Interestingly enough, while overall registered voters are swayed more towards the Republican and Democratic parties, the breakdown of new registered voters shows an almost even distribution between the Republicans, Democrats, and Other categories.

5 REGISTERED VOTERS BY AGE GROUP While in most counties in the region, the age group with the highest number of registered voters is 55-64, overall there are more that fall into the 45 to 54 age category (though not by much). These two age groups together make up just under 38% of the total voter population in Central Pennsylvania. The following chart displays a breakdown of the percentage of registered voters by political denomination within each age category in Central PA. The graph shows that overall, the age groups that make up the highest percentage of registered voters are those between the ages of 45 to 54 and 55 to 64. These groups are mostly made up of registrants of either the Republican or the Democratic parties. While the 18 to 24 year old category represents the lowest percentage of registered voters in the region, it is interesting to note that there is almost an even distribution between those registered as Republican, Democrat, or Other leaving the question, in the future is society leaning towards a non-party approach?

6