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Voting Levels

Volume 489: debated on Thursday 19 March 2009

To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission what recent assessment the Electoral Commission has made of levels of voting among people aged 25 and under. (264466)

The Electoral Commission informs me that those aged 25 or under tend to be less likely to vote at elections than other age groups. However, specific turnout figures according to age should be treated as estimates only.

The Commission’s report on turnout at the 2005 UK parliamentary general election included two different estimates for the 18 to 24-year-old age group.

The first was provided by MORI and indicated that turnout was 37 per cent. among those aged 18 to 24. This was based on an aggregation of their pre-election surveys, with a total sample of approximately 18,000 people.

The second was provided by the British Election Study’s (BES) post-election survey of approximately 4,700 adults. This estimated that 45 per cent. of 18 to 24-year-olds had voted.