How Do the Super Tuesday States’ Demographics & Economies Compare to the U.S. as a Whole?

This content leverages data from USAFacts, a non-profit that visualizes governmental data. You can learn more on its website, Facebook, and Twitter.

The 14 states that are holding Democratic presidential primaries on Super Tuesday will provide the best representation of the U.S. as a whole to date in the 2020 campaign. 

The Super Tuesday states represent 40% of the nation’s population, compared to 4% in the first four, and serve as a broad cross-section of America. This chart from USAFacts compares Super Tuesday states to the U.S. as a whole in several demographic areas:

Overall, the U.S. population is 60.4% non-Hispanic white, and four Super Tuesday states reflect either end of the diversity spectrum: Maine (93.1%) and Vermont (92.5%) have the two largest proportions of white populations of all the states; whereas California (36.8%) has the second-smallest and Texas (41.5%) has the fourth smallest. Virginia (61.5%) comes the closest to the U.S. as a whole in that regard.

For the U.S. as a whole, the share of people age 25 and older with bachelor’s degrees is 30.9%, and a pair of Super Tuesday states are closely representative of the national average: Texas (30.3%) and Maine (31.5). 

In terms of health insurance coverage, Massachusetts has the lowest uninsured rate in the nation at 2.8% whereas Texas has the highest at 17.5%. The 9.0% uninsured rate in Arkansas comes the closest to the national average of 9.4%.

Poverty rates across the Super Tuesday states show the tightest distribution of the demographic areas profiled. Utah has America’s lowest poverty rate at 6.9%, while Alabama has the highest at 16%. California (11.9%) most closely mirrors the national average (11.8%).

Only three Super Tuesday states have a higher percentage of foreign-born residents than the national average of 13.7%: Texas (17.2%), Massachusetts (17.4%, and California (26.9%) has the highest share in the nation. The closest Super Tuesday state to the national average is Virginia (12.5%).

From an economic standpoint, Super Tuesday states were home to 37% of America’s 155.8 million workers in 2018. The below charts from USAFacts show job growth in the Super Tuesday states from 1990-2018 and 2010-2018.

Six Super Tuesday states have a higher median wage than the national median of $38,640: Massachusetts, Minnesota, California, Colorado, Virginia, and Vermont. Massachusetts had the highest state median wage in the nation at $48,680 ― while Arkansas’ median wage of $31,850 was the second smallest of all 50 states.

As a whole, the 14 Super Tuesday states contributed $8.4 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2018, which amounts to 41% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Not only do the Super Tuesday states represent a demographic & economic profile of America, but they will also play a key electoral role as Democratic candidates seek to rack up the 1,991 delegates they will need to secure a majority and win the nomination outright.

The Super Tuesday states allocate a total of 1,344 delegates, and here’s how they stack up in order of delegates awarded: California (415), Texas (228), North Carolina (110), Virginia (99), Massachusetts (91), Minnesota (75), Colorado (67), Tennessee (64), Alabama (52), Oklahoma (37), Arkansas (31), Utah (29), Maine (24), and Vermont (16). 

Curious about comprehensive data for each state? Click the state links above or check out USAFacts’ Democracy Demographics experience.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / MattZ90)