In any given presidential election, the number of reported voters typically increases relative to the previous presidential election, largely as a product of increases in the size of the citizen voting-age population. Table 1 shows changes in both the number of reported voters and the citizen voting-age population between 2012 and 2016. Overall, in 2016, there were about 4.6 million more reported voters than in 2012. A majority of these additional voters (3.7 million) were 65 years and older. Remember, despite these additional reported voters, the overall voting rate was not statistically different between the two elections.

When analyzed alongside race and Hispanic origin, in 2016 a large portion of the additional reported voters (2.8 million) were non-Hispanic whites who were also 65 years of age and older.