Answer-first summary
Donald Trump received 62,984,828 popular votes in the 2016 general election in the United States, representing about 46.1% of ballots cast for a major party nominee. He won the Electoral College with 304 electoral votes (77 more than Hillary Clinton), despite losing the national popular vote by approximately 2,868,691 votes. The totals below are drawn from official state canvases and the National Archives records of the 2016 election.
2016 popular vote results at a glance
In the 2016 U.S. general election, major candidates appeared on ballots in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Official state results, certified by each state’s election authority and compiled by the National Archives, underpin the counts below. Minor-party and independent candidates are included in the overall popular vote total, but the figures below focus on the major-party outcome most commonly referenced in public discussion.
| Candidate | Popular votes | Share of two-party vote | Electoral votes | Date of certification (representative) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump | 62,984,828 | 46.1% | 304 | December 2016–January 2017 (state-by-state) |
| Hillary Clinton | 65,853,514 | 48.2% | 227 | December 2016–January 2017 (state-by-state) |
| Other/Minor parties & independents | ~7,300,000 | ~5.3% | — | Varies by state |
What “how many people voted for Trump in 2016” means
The phrase can refer to different metrics, so it is useful to separate the most common interpretations: the national popular vote, the Electoral College outcome, and certified state-level results. The national popular vote is the sum of individual ballots counted by each state and compiled by the National Archives. The Electoral College is the constitutionally specified process in which each state’s electors cast votes based on that state’s popular result. The official outcome is defined by the Electoral College, not by the national vote total.
National popular vote
Across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, about 137 million ballots were cast for president in 2016. Of those, 62,984,828 were for Donald Trump, and 65,853,514 were for Hillary Clinton. The remaining votes were for third-party candidates or were voided. The two-party vote share—calculated by measuring only the Democratic and Republican nominees—shows Trump at roughly 46% and Clinton at about 48%, with minor candidates holding the balance. The national popular vote margin of about 2.9 million votes in favor of Clinton is widely reported by the National Archives and state election agencies.
Electoral College result
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors; a majority—270—is required to win. After certification by Congress in early January 2017, the count stood at 304 for Trump and 227 for Clinton (77-electoral-vote margin), with 7 electors defecting from their pledged candidates. Each state’s outcome is determined by its popular vote within that state (except Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electoral votes by district). Thus, the number of people who voted for Trump in the Electoral College context is effectively the collection of states where his statewide or district-level vote exceeded Clinton’s, awarding him 304 electoral votes.
How votes are counted and certified
U.S. elections are administered by states, not the federal government. After Election Day, each state counts ballots, resolves provisional and mail-in ballots, and certifies results. Those certifications are then submitted to the National Archives, which maintains the official 2016 election record. The sequence is: local canvass, state certification, Electoral College voting in December, and congressional certification in January. Because each state certifies independently, small variations can exist between preliminary and final counts, but those variations are typically minor and do not change the outcome.
Context and historical perspective
The 2016 election occurred in a cycle that began with primaries in early 2016 and concluded with the Electoral College vote in December 2016. It followed a long period of demographic and political change and set the stage for significant policy and institutional debates in the years that followed. Trump’s 62.98 million popular votes and 304 electoral votes remain the baseline for comparing subsequent elections and for understanding the distribution of political support across the country.
Common questions and clarifications
- Are the 2016 numbers final? Yes. States certified results in late 2016, and the National Archives records remain the official source.
- Do electoral votes change the meaning of the popular vote? The Electoral College determines the winner, but the popular vote is still used to measure the scale of support.
- Can vote totals change after certification? Adjustments are rare and usually small; the certified 2016 totals are considered final.
- How does 2016 compare in turnout to other recent elections? 2016 turnout was high but slightly below 2020 in absolute votes and percentage of voting-age population.
Data sources and reliability notes
Numbers in this explanation come from state election canvases, the National Archives Federal Register, and peer-reviewed election analyses. We rely on certified outcomes rather than projections or forecasts. Where state-level detail is necessary, we reference the official records used by researchers and policymakers. This approach ensures that the facts remain clear and stable for long-term reference.