akashic
1876–2024
Erie, PA·Pennsylvania

Erie, PA peaked at D+40; 2024 delivered R+1.

A Lake Erie port city that's swung both ways in recent presidential cycles

1876 — 2024·38 elections
PA
Latest
R+1
in 2024
Archetype
Populist
since the recent cycles
Population
269,052
2024 ACS

Erie, PA, Pennsylvania: Populist metro. In 2024, voted R+1%. Republican peak: R+50 in 1924.

Key facts

2024 presidential margin
R+1MIT Election Lab
Political archetype
PopulistAkashic typology
Population
269,0522024 5-year
Median household income
$63,3542024 5-year
White (non-Hispanic)
82.7%2024 5-year
Black
7.2%2024 5-year
Hispanic / Latino
4.8%2024 5-year
Peak Democratic margin
D+40 in 1964MIT Election Lab
Peak Republican margin
R+50 in 1924MIT Election Lab
2024 results by constituent county
1 counties · 0 D · 1 R
R+60
D+60
One cell per constituent county. Ordered by 2024 D-vs-R margin (bluest first). Hover for county-level numbers.
38 presidential elections
Source · MIT Election Lab · ICPSR · VEST (precinct-level 2024).
YearWonMarginDemocraticRepublicanTotal
R
−1.0%
67,45668,866137,979
D
+1.0%
68,28666,869137,083
R
−1.6%
58,11260,069125,129
D
+16.0%
68,03649,025119,114
D
+19.9%
75,77550,351127,691
D
+8.4%
67,92157,372125,898
D
+9.2%
59,39949,027112,335
D
+16.2%
57,50839,884108,791
D
+14.5%
56,38139,283117,804
D
+5.4%
53,91348,306103,300
R
−3.1%
52,47155,860109,266
R
−2.9%
45,94648,918103,162
D
+5.3%
55,38549,641107,439
R
−18.5%
42,02261,542105,713
D
+8.5%
51,60443,13499,847
D
+39.6%
72,94431,393104,886
D
+2.1%
53,72351,525105,543
R
−23.3%
33,80254,43088,555
R
−14.2%
36,61948,83685,846
R
−8.9%
28,15933,80663,245
R
−3.4%
32,91235,24768,578
R
−7.1%
31,73536,60868,714
D
+11.4%
33,04225,60765,355
D
+3.0%
19,59218,37140,442
R
−22.5%
19,27830,54250,097
R
−50.3%
3,50219,48031,784
R
−43.0%
6,31119,46530,569
D
+3.4%
9,6418,93320,630
O
+3.7%
5,6334,95818,408
R
−24.0%
6,17310,82819,419
R
−35.9%
5,11911,95119,018
R
−22.4%
7,28111,81620,207
R
−12.1%
9,21011,81921,592
R
−7.4%
7,5898,91817,923
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Demographics

Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
German
22.4%
Irish
13.2%
Italian
10.6%
Polish
10.1%
English
8.5%
American
3.9%
Scottish
1.6%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 40.2 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
0.8%
85+
1.4%
2.5%
75–84
3.2%
5.7%
65–74
6.2%
6.6%
55–64
6.8%
5.8%
45–54
5.8%
6.1%
35–44
6.0%
6.4%
25–34
6.1%
5.2%
18–24
4.8%
8.0%
5–17
7.6%
2.6%
<5
2.5%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Median household income
2024 inflation-adjusted dollars
$63,354
Erie, PA ranks near the middle of US counties.
Erie, PA$63,354
Pennsylvania$77,971
United States$80,734
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
15.0%
Children face moderate poverty.
Children under 1821.0%
Working age (18–64)13.5%
Seniors (65+)12.0%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
93.1%
speak English only
Other Indo-European3.1%
Spanish2.0%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.9%
Other languages0.9%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Catholic & Orthodox
18.5%
Other Christian
6.9%
Mainline Protestant
4.3%
Methodist
4.1%
Pentecostal & Holiness
2.2%
Baptist
1.8%
Non-Christian
0.8%
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 61.4% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.

Erie's metro anchors Pennsylvania's northwest corner with a blue-collar manufacturing base that has produced some of the state's sharpest vote swings, shifting between parties by double-digit margins across consecutive presidential elections.

The Democratic margin in Erie, PA peaked at forty points in 1964. By 2024 the metro had flipped, voting Republican for the first time in many years. The 2024 margin was one points, the most Republican-leaning result in the metro's modern history.

The economic context is the key. The median household income of $63,354 sits well below state and national norms, and 15% of residents live below the federal poverty line. The shift here is part of a broader realignment of working-class places across the country.

Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Erie, PA, Pennsylvania — The Long Memory. Akashic Intelligence — The Long Memory. https://tiers.akashic.app/cbsa/21500/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0

Frequently asked questions

How did Erie, PA, Pennsylvania vote in 2024?
In 2024, Erie, PA, Pennsylvania voted Republican by 1.0 points (R+1), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 137,979 votes cast, 67,456 went Democratic and 68,866 went Republican.
What is Erie, PA, Pennsylvania's political archetype?
Akashic classifies Erie, PA, Pennsylvania as a "Populist" metro based on its long-arc presidential voting pattern. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the metro has voted Democratic 15 times, Republican 18 times, and other 1 times.
When did Erie, PA, Pennsylvania last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Erie, PA, Pennsylvania voted Democratic was 2020.
How many people live in Erie, PA, Pennsylvania?
Erie, PA, Pennsylvania has a population of 269,052 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Erie, PA, Pennsylvania?
Median household income in Erie, PA, Pennsylvania is $63,354 — below the national median of $80,734. The Pennsylvania state median is $77,971.
What is the political history of Erie, PA, Pennsylvania?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Erie, PA, Pennsylvania from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 15 went Democratic and 18 went Republican. The metro's archetype — "Populist" — captures the overall trajectory of that voting record.