Ever feel like political stats are just a bunch of shouting into the void? You’re not alone. When people ask what percentage of the US voted for Trump, they usually expect a single, clean number. But honestly, it’s kinda like asking how many people like pizza. Are we talking about everyone in the country? Just the people who actually showed up to vote? Or the people who were allowed to vote but stayed home to watch Netflix instead?
The reality of the 2024 election—and the two that came before it—is way messier than a simple bar graph. It’s a story of a shifting map, a massive chunk of the country that doesn't participate at all, and a Republican coalition that suddenly looks a lot less like the 1980s and a lot more like a modern, multi-ethnic working class.
The Raw Numbers: 2024 vs. The World
Let’s get the big one out of the way. In the 2024 election, Donald Trump did something no Republican has done in twenty years: he won the national popular vote.
According to the final tallies, Trump pulled in about 49.8% of the total votes cast. His opponent, Kamala Harris, landed at roughly 48.3%. That’s a margin of about 1.5 percentage points. It sounds small—and in the grand scheme of things, it is—but it represents a massive 6-point swing from 2020.
Back in 2020, Trump actually only got 46.8% of the vote. He lost the popular vote to Joe Biden, who took home 51.3%. If you go even further back to 2016, the year he actually won the White House the first time, his percentage of the popular vote was even lower: 46.1%.
Wait, so he won the presidency with 46% but lost it with nearly 47%?
Yup. That’s the Electoral College for you. But 2024 was different. For the first time, the "percentage of the US" that voted for him wasn't just enough to squeak by in the Rust Belt; it was a plurality of the entire voting nation.
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Why the Percentage of the US Voted for Trump Is Higher Than You Think
Now, if you’re looking at the entire US population—including kids, non-citizens, and your cousin who forgot to register—the percentage is obviously lower. There are roughly 335 million people in America. Only about 155 million actually voted in 2024.
So, if you do the math, only about 23% of the total US population actually checked the box for Trump.
But that’s a bit of a trick stat. If you only look at the people who were eligible to vote (the Voting-Eligible Population, or VEP), the turnout was roughly 64%. This means about 32% of all eligible American adults chose Trump.
The Demographic Breakdown: Who Are These People?
For years, the media painted a very specific picture of a Trump voter. You know the one: older, white, living in a rural area. And while that group is still the bedrock of his support, 2024 shattered the old mold.
Basically, Trump’s "percentage" grew because he started winning over people who weren't "supposed" to vote for him.
Take Hispanic voters. In 2020, Biden won them by a whopping 25 points. In 2024? Trump almost closed the gap entirely. He got roughly 48% of the Hispanic vote, according to Pew Research. That is a seismic shift. If you look at Hispanic men specifically, Trump actually won that group outright.
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Then there’s the Black vote. While still overwhelmingly Democratic, Trump nearly doubled his support there, moving from 8% in 2020 to about 15% in 2024.
The Urban-Rural Divide is Getting Weirder
We always hear about the "Two Americas." The cities vs. the countryside. And yeah, that’s still a thing. In rural areas, Trump’s support is massive—he took about 69% of the rural vote.
But here’s the kicker: he also made gains in the suburbs and even in deep-blue cities. He didn't win New York City or Chicago, obviously, but he took a bigger "percentage" of those cities than he did in 2020. This "creep" into Democratic strongholds is why his national percentage finally topped that 49% mark.
Was it Turnout or "Switching"?
This is the part that political nerds argue about at 2:00 AM. Did Trump win because he convinced Biden voters to switch, or because his people showed up and the other side didn't?
Honestly, it’s a bit of both, but turnout was the real king.
Pew Research found that about 89% of Trump’s 2020 voters showed up again in 2024. Compare that to Harris, who only saw about 85% of Biden’s 2020 voters return to the polls. When you have millions of people in your base, that 4% difference in "enthusiasm" is the difference between a win and a loss.
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Also, Trump won the "new and returning" voter category. These are the people who skipped 2020 but decided 2024 was too important to miss. He took about 54% of that group.
The "Non-Voter" Factor
We can't talk about the percentage of the US that voted for Trump without talking about the people who did absolutely nothing.
About 36% of eligible voters stayed home. That’s tens of millions of people. Interestingly, when pollsters ask these non-voters who they would have picked, they were almost evenly split. In 2020, non-voters leaned heavily toward Biden. In 2024, they were basically a coin flip.
This suggests that the "vibe shift" wasn't just among people at the polls; it was a general move across the entire country toward the Republican platform, even among those who couldn't be bothered to find a polling station.
What This Means for the Future
If you’re trying to figure out what this says about America, look at the "coalition" rather than just the raw percentage.
For the first time in decades, the Republican party isn't just the party of country clubs and rural farms. It’s becoming a "working-class" party that cuts across racial lines. The educational divide is now the biggest predictor of how someone will vote. If you don't have a college degree, you were much more likely to be part of that 49.8%.
Actionable Insights: How to Read Election Data Like a Pro
If you want to stay informed without getting lost in the spin, here are a few things to keep in mind for the next cycle:
- Look at the "VEP" (Voting-Eligible Population) instead of the total population. It gives you a much better sense of "who won the argument" among those who could actually participate.
- Watch the "margins," not just the winner. A candidate winning a city they lost by 30 points by only 15 points is a massive signal, even if they still "lost" that city.
- Check the "validated voter" studies. Real data from places like Pew Research or the Cooperative Election Study (CES) usually takes a few months to come out after an election. These are way more accurate than "exit polls" you see on TV on election night.
- Pay attention to the non-voters. They are the largest "party" in America. If a candidate manages to wake up even 5% of them, the entire map changes.
The percentage of the US voted for Trump tells us that the country isn't just divided—it's re-sorting itself. The old rules about which groups vote for which party are effectively dead. Whether that’s a permanent change or a one-time fluke is the $64,000 question for the next four years.