US election: Demographics show bitterly divided nation
A quarter of all voters chose either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton simply because they disliked the other candidates.
Wednesday 9 November 2016 06:05, UK
The latest exit poll data, based on responses from almost 22,000 voters, confirms that the race to become the 45th president is set to be one of the closest on record.
It is clear the two candidates provoke strong opinions amongst voters in a society that is becoming increasingly polarised.
A quarter of all voters chose either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton simply because they disliked the other candidates - hardly a ringing endorsement for the eventual winner.
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Once again, women and men take different views. Among men, Mr Trump has a nine-point lead over Mrs Clinton - 50% to 41%.
By contrast, women are doing their best to ensure that Mrs Clinton becomes the first woman to be elected president. Over half, 54% of women, appear to have cast a vote for her.
A similar divide can be found among the different age groups with younger voters favouring the Democrats and those aged over 65 years leaning towards Mr Trump.
However, Mrs Clinton's appeal among those aged under 30 years, where she has a 20-point lead over Mr Trump (54/34%), is not as great as Barack Obama's 23-point lead.
One in 10 votes cast by these electors has gone to Gary Johnson the Libertarian or Jill Stein running for the Green party.
Among older voters the Republicans continue to have greatest appeal but Mrs Clinton has narrowed the gap slightly compared with 2012.
Six in 10 white voters, who comprise 70% of those voting, have backed Mr Trump.
Black voters, one in eight of the total, are strongly in favour of Mrs Clinton.
Much has been made of a likely upsurge in Hispanic and Latino voters but this has not materialised.
Moreover, her share of these votes, projected at 65%, is smaller than the total received by Mr Obama.
A key part of Mr Trump's strategy was to target the 'left-behind' - predominantly white males with no college education. About one in three voters fall into this category and Mr Trump appears to have captured two-thirds of votes cast by them.
As expected, Mrs Clinton has greater appeal among voters with college education.
More than half of voters describe themselves as Protestant or 'other Christian'. Mr Trump has a 15-point lead among this category. Catholic voters, about a quarter of the total, split evenly between the two main parties. One in seven voters have no religious affiliation and this group splits 68/24 in favour of Mrs Clinton.
There is a slight increase in the proportion of voters that decided how to vote in the closing days of the campaign. One in eight casting a ballot on 8 November arrived at their decision in the final seven days but they split evenly among the two principal contenders.
Some very clear divisions arise when the issues are examined.
Half of voters name the economy as the single most important issue and a majority of these favour Mrs Clinton.
But both terrorism (named by 18% of voters) and immigration (12%) feature prominently and among these Mr Trump has double-digit leads.
On the controversial issue of illegal immigrants working in the US, a quarter of voters want them deported to the country they came from. Among these Mr Trump wins 82% of the votes cast.
Democrats are three to one in thinking that government should do more to solve America's problems. Republicans divide in the same proportion but believe that government takes too much responsibility.
Interestingly, although 62% of all voters do not believe that Mr Trump is qualified to serve as president, one in six of this group still went ahead and voted for him.
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