How 2024 Trump-voting states stack up on college attainment
State (Trump 2024) | Adults 25+ with a Bachelor’s degree or higher (ACS 2023) |
|---|
Utah | 36.9 % |
Kansas | 35.2 % |
North Carolina | 34.7 % |
Montana | 34.5 % |
Pennsylvania | 34.5 % |
Georgia | 34.2 % |
Nebraska | 34.1 % |
Florida | 33.2 % |
Texas | 33.1 % |
Wisconsin | 32.8 % |
Arizona | 32.6 % |
North Dakota | 32.3 % |
Missouri | 31.9 % |
Michigan | 31.8 % |
South Carolina | 31.5 % |
Alaska | 31.2 % |
Idaho | 31.2 % |
South Dakota | 31.1 % |
Iowa | 30.9 % |
Ohio | 30.9 % |
Tennessee | 30.4 % |
New Mexico | 30.2 % |
Wyoming | 29.9 % |
Indiana | 28.8 % |
Alabama | 27.8 % |
Oklahoma | 27.8 % |
Nevada | 27.4 % |
Kentucky | 27.0 % |
Louisiana | 26.6 % |
Arkansas | 25.1 % |
Mississippi | 24.2 % |
West Virginia | 23.3 % |
National baseline: 35.0 % of U.S. adults hold at least a bachelor’s degree. (worldpopulationreview.com)
Key findings
- Trump won 31 of 50 states in 2024. (Wikipedia)
- Average college-degree share across those 31 states is ≈ 30.9 % (median 31.2 %), 4 percentage points below the national average.
- Only two Trump states (Utah 36.9 %, Kansas 35.2 %) exceed the national rate.
- The lowest-attainment cluster—West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky—sits 8-12 points under the U.S. average.
- Upper-Midwest and Mountain GOP wins (e.g., Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming) post mid-30 % figures—higher than the Deep South but still below the country overall.
- Pattern: 29 of the 31 Trump states fall short of the national bachelor’s share, confirming the broader 2024 trend that states with lower college attainment leaned more heavily Republican, with Utah and Kansas the notable outliers. (Axios highlighted Utah as the *“most-educated Trump state.”) (Axios)
What the numbers suggest
- Education gap remains wide: 2024 continued the post-2016 alignment where college-heavy states (e.g., MA 46.6 %, CO 44.7 %, NJ 42.9 %) favored Democrats, while most lower-attainment states moved further right.
- Regional nuance: Plains & Mountain states combine relatively high high-school completion with middling bachelor’s rates—enough to keep them GOP despite slowly rising college attainment.
- Outliers matter: Utah’s 37 % bachelor’s rate shows culture and religion can override educational correlations; Kansas barely clears the national bar yet still reflects its long GOP history.
- Policy angle: For campaign strategists or policy makers, economic and educational investments in these lower-degree states could shift or solidify future electoral coalitions.
Bottom line:
The 2024 map underscores a strong inverse relationship between a state’s share of college graduates and its likelihood of voting for Donald Trump—with just two exceptions out of 31 Republican states breaching the national college-degree average.
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I haven't double-checked this report but it looks correct, which tends to show that people that aren't smart enough to get through college are also most likely to vote Trump.
AOG, PhD
