Barnstable County, Massachusetts: Realigning Affluent Suburb county. In 2024, voted D+21%. Republican peak: R+76 in 1896.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- D+21MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Realigning Affluent SuburbAkashic typology
- Population
- 231,6682024 5-year
- Median household income
- $95,2412024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 85.8%2024 5-year
- Black
- 2.8%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 3.7%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+24 in 2020MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+76 in 1896MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Pima County, AZ · similarity 0.98
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Barnstable CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Barnstable County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | −44.2% |
| 1896 | −76.4% |
| 1900 | −62.0% |
| 1904 | −58.5% |
| 1908 | −58.4% |
| 1912 | +1.5% |
| 1916 | −19.5% |
| 1920 | −69.5% |
| 1924 | −75.2% |
| 1928 | −54.4% |
| 1932 | −41.7% |
| 1936 | −40.0% |
| 1940 | −40.3% |
| 1944 | −40.0% |
| 1948 | −51.4% |
| 1952 | −61.4% |
| 1956 | −66.7% |
| 1960 | −25.4% |
| 1964 | +14.1% |
| 1968 | −18.4% |
| 1972 | −23.1% |
| 1976 | −11.0% |
| 1980 | −21.3% |
| 1984 | −14.3% |
| 1988 | −0.9% |
| 1992 | +11.7% |
| 1996 | +17.2% |
| 2000 | +10.5% |
| 2004 | +10.3% |
| 2008 | +14.0% |
| 2012 | +7.8% |
| 2016 | +13.3% |
| 2020 | +24.2% |
| 2024 | +20.6% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | 88,129 | 57,451 | 148,785 | ||
| D | 91,994 | 55,311 | 151,512 | ||
| D | 72,430 | 54,099 | 137,912 | ||
| D | 70,822 | 60,446 | 133,115 | ||
| D | 74,264 | 55,694 | 132,270 | ||
| D | 72,156 | 58,527 | 132,148 | ||
| D | 62,363 | 49,686 | 121,086 | ||
| D | 59,223 | 40,144 | 110,737 | ||
| D | 46,641 | 33,916 | 108,997 | ||
| R | 48,747 | 49,676 | 99,872 | ||
| R | 38,369 | 51,261 | 89,951 | ||
| R | 23,952 | 41,493 | 82,273 | ||
| R | 31,268 | 39,295 | 73,117 | ||
| R | 22,636 | 36,340 | 59,442 | ||
| R | 16,546 | 24,296 | 42,162 | ||
| D | 20,101 | 15,133 | 35,355 | ||
| R | 12,423 | 20,900 | 33,372 | ||
| R | 4,672 | 23,472 | 28,202 | ||
| R | 4,984 | 20,943 | 25,971 | ||
| R | 4,616 | 14,633 | 19,490 | ||
| R | 4,938 | 11,543 | 16,525 | ||
| R | 5,351 | 12,659 | 18,118 | ||
| R | 4,751 | 11,337 | 16,485 | ||
| R | 3,829 | 9,476 | 13,527 | ||
| R | 2,899 | 9,886 | 12,845 | ||
| R | 881 | 7,333 | 8,577 | ||
| R | 1,125 | 6,383 | 7,562 | ||
| R | 1,892 | 2,836 | 4,833 | ||
| O | 1,322 | 1,249 | 4,975 | ||
| R | 777 | 3,312 | 4,341 | ||
| R | 900 | 3,638 | 4,681 | ||
| R | 749 | 3,372 | 4,229 | ||
| R | 517 | 4,456 | 5,158 | ||
| R | 1,373 | 3,688 | 5,232 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
Irish
25.2%
English
16.7%
Italian
11.2%
German
8.1%
French
4.2%
American
3.8%
Scottish
3.4%
African American
2.2%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
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.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 55.4 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$95,241
Barnstable County ranks in the top 5% of US counties.
Barnstable County$95,241
Massachusetts$103,960
United States$80,734
Barnstable County ranks in the top 5% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
7.7%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 189.1%
Working age (18–64)7.4%
Seniors (65+)7.6%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
89.2%
speak English only
Other Indo-European7.0%
Spanish2.4%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.9%
Other languages0.6%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 63.9% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Barnstable County covers the entirety of Cape Cod, where a large retiree population and second-home owners produce an older, college-educated electorate that has voted Democratic at the presidential level by double digits in recent cycles.
Once reliably Republican — a margin of seventy-six points in 1896 at its widest — Barnstable County has trended Democratic. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved four points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was twenty-one points.
A median household income of $95,241 — among the higher at this geographic scale — and a population of 231,668 describe the county. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Pima County and Norfolk County.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/25001/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More in Massachusetts
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Frequently asked questions
How did Barnstable County, Massachusetts vote in 2024?
In 2024, Barnstable County, Massachusetts voted Democratic by 20.6 points (D+21), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 148,785 votes cast, 88,129 went Democratic and 57,451 went Republican.
What is Barnstable County, Massachusetts's political typology?
Akashic places Barnstable County, Massachusetts in the "Realigning Affluent Suburb" typology — College-educated, affluent suburbs — the one bloc moving toward the Democratic Party. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 10 times, Republican 23 times, and other 1 times.
When did Barnstable County, Massachusetts last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Barnstable County, Massachusetts voted Republican was 1988.
How many people live in Barnstable County, Massachusetts?
Barnstable County, Massachusetts has a population of 231,668 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Barnstable County, Massachusetts?
Median household income in Barnstable County, Massachusetts is $95,241 — above the national median of $80,734. The Massachusetts state median is $103,960.
What is the political history of Barnstable County, Massachusetts?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Barnstable County, Massachusetts from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 10 went Democratic and 23 went Republican. The county's typology — "Realigning Affluent Suburb" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.