The results of the Iowa caucus are in: Barack Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination race and Mike Huckabee won the Republican side.

The story's all over the Internet, but I found some interesting exit poll statistics on MSNBC on the breakdown of the Iowa Republican and Democratic caucus goers.

For instance:

AGE	% Total (Democratic)	% Total (Republican)
17-24 25-29 30-44 45-59 ...	17 6 18 29	9 3 15 35

So it is not entirely true that young people are apathetic about politics. 23% of the Democratic and 14% of the Republican caucus goers are under 30. It's interesting how the turnout for the 25-29 is actually lower than the 17-24, though this is consistent across party lines.

When did they decide whom to vote for?	% Total (Democratic)	% Total (Republican)
Just today In the last 3 days Sometime last week In the last month Before that	11 9 7 24 49	17 13 10 31 28

27% of the Democrats and a whopping 40% of Republicans decided whom to support just in the last week before the caucus.

Which issue is the most important?	% Total (Democratic)	% Total (Republican)
The economy The war in Iraq Healthcare Illegal immigration Terrorism	35 35 27 - -	26 17 - 33 21

Big difference here: the war in Iraq is a big issue for the Dems, whereas the Republicans are more concerned over illegal immigration.

Finally, two interesting observations are that:
• 60% of all Republicans who attended are born-again or evangelical Christian
• for 57% of the Democrats, this was their first caucus

Links: Democrat and Republican Exit Polls