Gray is the New Green: The Growing Strength of Older Climate Voters

The Environmental Voter Project (EVP) released a new report highlighting key findings about older climate voters in 18 states where EVP has built predictive models identifying voters who are likely to rank “climate change” or “clean air, clean water, and the environment” as their top political priority. 

Some of the key takeaways from the report include:

• 1 in 6 voters aged 65 and older view climate as a top priority. Across the 18 states studied, 16.4% of registered voters aged 65 and older were likely to consider either “climate change” or “clean air, clean water, and the environment” as their top issue priority.
• After young voters (age 18–34), older voters (age 65+) are now the second most likely age group to prioritize climate. In each of the 18 states studied, voters aged 65 and older were more likely than 35–49 year olds or 50–64 year olds to list “climate change” or “clean air, clean water, and the environment” as their top issue priority. Only 18–34 year olds were more likely to prioritize climate than voters aged 65 and older.
• The Potential Impact of Older Climate Voters in Arizona and Pennsylvania. In Arizona and Pennsylvania — two crucial swing states in 2024 — the populations of older climate voters are so large that they make up 4.8% and 4.7%, respectively, of the entire electorate in each state.

The report also highlights who these voters are:

• Disproportionately Female. Older female climate voters outnumber older male climate voters 59.3% to 40.4% (with 0.4% unknown). This significant 19-point gender gap is much larger than the 10-point gender gap which exists among all registered voters aged 65 and older.
• More Likely to be AAPI or White. 3.0% of age 65+ climate voters are Asian American & Pacific Islander compared to only 2.5% of all registered voters. Similarly, 83.6% of older climate voters are white compared to 77.3% of all older registered voters. Among younger voters, EVP has previously found that voters of color make up a disproportionately large percentage of climate voters.