Numbers are tricky. Depending on who you ask, Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election was either a massive landslide or a narrow win decided by a tiny slice of the country. If you're looking for the simple answer to what percent of the population voted for trump, the number is roughly 23%.
Wait, that sounds low, right?
That's because when we talk about "the population," we’re including everyone: babies, non-citizens, and people who forgot it was Tuesday. If we’re talking about people who actually showed up to vote, the story changes completely. Trump secured about 49.8% of the popular vote, making him the first Republican to win a majority or plurality of the popular vote since 2004.
Breaking Down the 2024 Popular Vote
Let's look at the raw data. According to certified results from the 2024 election, Donald Trump received approximately 77.3 million votes. His main opponent, Kamala Harris, brought in about 75 million.
When you look at the total "ballots cast," Trump walked away with just under half. It’s a slim margin in the popular vote—about 1.5 percentage points—but in the world of American politics, that’s a significant shift from his previous two runs. In 2016, he won the White House while losing the popular vote. In 2020, he increased his vote count but still lost both the popular and the Electoral College. 2024 was the year he finally checked all the boxes.
The Population Gap
Why is there such a massive difference between the "popular vote" and the "percent of the population"?
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The United States has a population of roughly 336 to 340 million people. If you take Trump's 77.3 million votes and divide it by the total population, you get about 22.8%.
Here is why that happens:
- Kids can't vote. Roughly 72 million Americans are under the age of 18.
- Non-citizens. There are millions of residents who live, work, and pay taxes here but don't have the legal right to vote.
- The "I'm staying home" group. Even in a high-turnout year like 2024, tens of millions of eligible adults just didn't participate.
What Percent of the Population Voted for Trump vs. Registered Voters?
Honestly, the most useful metric for political nerds is the "Voting Eligible Population" (VEP). This filters out kids and non-citizens to show who could have voted if they really wanted to.
In 2024, the VEP was roughly 244.7 million people.
If we use that as our baseline, Trump’s 77.3 million votes represent about 31.6% of all eligible voters. That means nearly a third of all adults who were legally allowed to vote chose Trump. About 30.6% chose Harris. The rest? They either voted for a third party or, more likely, stayed on the couch.
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Turnout Reality Check
Turnout in 2024 was high, but it actually dipped a bit from the record-breaking 2020 election. About 64% of the voting-eligible population turned out. That’s still the second or third highest in over a century, which tells you how much people cared about this cycle.
Pew Research Center notes that while Trump held on to 85% of his 2020 supporters, he also picked up a huge chunk of "new and returning" voters—people who didn't bother in 2020 but felt the urge this time around. Specifically, among those who sat out 2020 but showed up in 2024, Trump carried that group by about 12 points.
Why the Percentage Varies by State
You can't just look at the national average if you want to understand the win. In some places, the percent of the population voted for trump was overwhelming. In others, he was barely a blip.
Take West Virginia. Trump won over 70% of the vote there. If you look at the voting-eligible population in a state like that, his "reach" is much deeper. On the flip side, in a place like California, his 38% of the popular vote translates to a much smaller slice of the total state population.
This matters because of the Electoral College. Trump won 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226. He swept every single one of the seven key "swing states." Even if his national popular vote percentage was just under 50%, his ability to maximize that percentage in the right geographic locations is what actually put him back in the Oval Office.
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Demographics That Shifted
One of the biggest surprises for analysts was the shift in specific groups. Trump didn't just rely on his traditional base.
- Hispanic Voters: Trump saw a massive surge, particularly among Hispanic men. In some exit polls, he actually won this demographic outright.
- Young Voters: While Harris still won the under-30 crowd, Trump narrowed the gap significantly compared to 2020.
- Urban Centers: Even in deep blue cities, the percentage of people voting Republican ticked upward.
The "Non-Voter" Factor
If roughly 23% of the total population voted for Trump and 22% voted for Harris, that leaves more than half the country "uncounted" in the ballot box.
Why didn't they show up?
USAFacts and the Census Bureau found that the biggest reasons people cited for skipping the 2024 election were a lack of interest, being "too busy," or a general dislike of both candidates. About 15% of non-voters simply said they didn't think their vote would change anything. This "disengaged" population is actually larger than the group that voted for either candidate.
Looking Forward: Actionable Insights
If you're trying to make sense of these numbers for a project, a debate, or just your own curiosity, keep these takeaways in mind:
- Context is King: When someone says "only a quarter of the country voted for him," they are usually talking about the total population. When someone says "half the country voted for him," they mean the voters. Both are technically true but serve different narratives.
- Turnout Trends: Keep an eye on the 18–24 age bracket. They have the lowest turnout (under 50%), meaning they represent the largest "untapped" percentage of the population.
- Registration Matters: About 73.6% of the citizen voting-age population was registered in 2024. If you want to see how a candidate's support might grow, look at registration drives in swing states rather than national polling.
The 2024 results proved that a candidate doesn't need 100% of the population—or even 100% of the voters—to claim a decisive mandate. They just need the right percentages in the right places. To dive deeper into how these numbers compare to historical landslides like 1984 or 1972, you can look up the "United States Election Project" for detailed VEP breakdowns by year.