Pew: Millennials Approach Baby Boomers as Largest Bloc in Electorate

Millennials are nipping at the heels of Baby Boomers for the largest eligible voting bloc in the U.S. electorate, according to Pew Research Center.

The electorate in 2016 was comprised of 62 million millennials — or 27 percent — becoming eligible to vote, a steep increase over 2012. Baby Boomers, meanwhile, dropped to 70 million (31 percent of the electorate) in 2016, according to Pew.

Millennials are projected to leap Baby Boomers next year to become the largest living adult generation.

However, whenever millennials do take over as the largest eligible voting bloc, it represents only potential voters, not actual voters.

In fact, despite its girth of eligible voters, millennials were in last place in 2016 in percentage (51 percent) of generational voters who actually voted, according to Pew.

"While it may be a slam-dunk that Millennials will soon be the largest generation in the electorate, it will likely be a much longer time before they are the largest bloc of voters," Richard Fry of Pew writes.

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