Demographics paint a statistical picture of the place they measure. All these numbers and figures combine to help predict the types of people you might meet and things you might see — everything from lots of good ethnic food to how politically active citizens tend to be.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, states are proportionally represented based on population. Each state is broken into a corresponding number of congressional districts, 435 in total. The constitution mandates that each district have similar populations, a number which hovers around 700,000 today. This is to ensure fairness and equality across all districts, and therefore equal representation for every citizen.
While they are similar in population and drawn to prevent minority vote dilution, the age of voters in each district varies widely. To find out what significance the age of voters in a given district might have, FindTheHome analyzed American Community Survey data from 2014’s 5-year rolling estimates to rank each district by median age. Then, we used GovTrack.us data to find the current party affiliation of each district. Combining this information with Graphiq visualizations, we analyzed the potential factors behind the median age in these districts and did some original research to find out what impact age might have on voters. Considering our findings alongside studies from the U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center and Gallup, we discovered that median age may have an impact on political participation throughout congressional districts.
