Since 1964, voter turnout rates in U.S. presidential elections have generally fluctuated across all age groups, falling to a national low in 1996, before rising again in the past two decades. Since 1988, there has been a direct correlation with voter participation and age, as people become more likely to vote as they get older. Participation among eligible voters under the age of 25 is the lowest of all age groups, and in the 1996 and 2000 elections, fewer than one third of eligible voters under the age of 25 participated, compared with more than two thirds of voters over 65 years.

In 2022, 77.9 percent of people aged between 65 and 74 years old were registered to vote in the United States - the highest share of any age group. In comparison, 49.1 percent of 18 to 24 year-olds were registered to vote in that year.

During the weeks leading up to the presidential election, early voting began in almost all states, with over 80 million ballots being cast nationally as of Election Day. Although 39 percent of mail-in and early in-person votes were cast by voters aged 65 or older, ten percent of those aged 18 to 29 years old voted early.

According to exit polling in ten key states of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, Donald Trump received the most support from white voters between the ages of 45 and 64. In comparison, 84 percent of Black voters between the ages of 18 and 29 reported voting for Kamala Harris.

According to exit polling in ten key states of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, Donald Trump received the most support from men between the ages of 45 and 64. In comparison, 61 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 29 reported voting for Kamala Harris.

In 2022, about 70 percent of women in the United States were registered to vote. This is higher than the share of men who were registered to vote in that same year.

According to exit polling in the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States, 62 percent of surveyed 18 to 29 year old voters reported voting for former Vice President Joe Biden. In the race to become the next president of the United States, 51 percent of voters aged 65 and older reported voting for incumbent President Donald Trump.

This statistic displays the way in which electorates voted during the General Election in the United Kingdom (UK) on June 8th, 2017. The data shows that there was a clear connection between the age of a voter and the party they would vote for. The younger a voter there is a statistically higher chance that they would vote for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, whereas the older electorate would be more likely to vote conservative under Theresa May. The distribution of votes for the Liberal Democrats remained almost stable between the age groups.

This graph shows the percentage of votes of the 2016 presidential elections in the United States on November 9, 2016, by age. According to the exit polls, about 56 percent of voters aged 18 to 24 voted for Hillary Clinton.

In U.S. presidential elections since 1964, voters in the 18 to 24 age bracket have traditionally had the lowest turnout rates among all ethnicities. From 1964 until 1996, white voters in this age bracket had the highest turnout rates of the four major ethnic groups in the U.S., particularly those of non-Hispanic origin. However participation was highest among young Black voters in 2008 and 2012, during the elections where Barack Obama, the U.S.' first African-American major party candidate, was nominated. Young Asian American and Hispanic voters generally have the lowest turnout rates, and were frequently below half of the overall 18 to 24 turnout before the 2000s.

As of January 2025, the political party that 18 to 24 year-old's in Great Britain would be most likely to vote for was the Labour Party, at 36 percent, while among those over 65, the Conservative Party was the most popular with 35 percent intending to vote for them.

According to a 2023 survey of young adults in the United States, just over half of Americans between 18 and 24 years old were planning on voting in the 2024 presidential election. The likelihood among those between the ages of 25 and 34 was only slightly greater.

This statistic illustrates the participation rate of voters in the United States midterm elections from 2002 to 2022, by age. In 2022, 25.6 percent of voters aged 18 to 24-years-old voted in the midterm elections, compared to 64.6 percent of voters aged 65 years and older.

This statistic shows the voter participation in the United States 2016 presidential election, by age. In the 2016 presidential election, 43 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 24 years reported voting.

In 2022, there were 161.42 million people registered to vote in the United States. This is a decrease from the previous election, when 168.31 million people were registered to vote.

Voting requirements

While voting laws differ from state to state, the basic requirements are the same across the entire country. People are allowed to vote in elections in the United States if they are a U.S. citizen, meet their state’s residency requirements, are at least 18 years old before Election Day, and are registered to vote before the registration deadline.

Vote early and often

Generally, younger people are not registered to vote at the same rate as older individuals. Additionally, young people tend not to vote as much as older people, particularly in midterm elections. However, in the 2016 presidential election, a significant number of people across all age groups voted in the election, resulting in a high voter turnout.

In the 1824 U.S presidential election, which was the first where a popular vote was used to determine the overall winner, approximately three percent of the U.S. population voted in the election, while only one percent actually voted for the winner. Over the following decades, restrictions that prevented non-property owning males from voting were gradually repealed, and almost all white men over the age of 21 could vote by the 1856 election. The next major development was the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution following the American Civil War, which granted suffrage to all male citizens of voting age, regardless of race. Turnout then grew to almost twenty percent at the turn of the century, however Jim Crow laws played a large part in keeping these numbers lower than they potentially could have been, by disenfranchising black communities in the south and undoing much of the progress made during the Reconstruction Era. Extension of voting rights Female suffrage, granted to women in 1920, was responsible for the largest participation increase between any two elections in U.S. history. Between the 1916 and 1920 elections, overall turnout increased by almost seven percent, and it continued to grow to 38 percent by the 1940 election; largely due to the growth in female participation over time. Following a slight reduction during the Second World War and 1948 elections, turnout remained at between 36 and forty percent from the 1950s until the 1990s. Between these decades, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in 1971 respectively re-enfranchised many black voters in the south and reduced the voting age in all states from 21 to 18 years old. Participation among female voters has also exceeded male participation in all elections since 1980. Recent trends The 1992 election was the first where more than forty percent of the total population cast ballots, and turnout has been above forty percent in all presidential elections since 2004. Along with the extension of voting rights, the largest impact on voter turnout has been the increase in life expectancy throughout the centuries, almost doubling in the past 150 years. As the overall average age has risen, so too has the share of the total population who are eligible to vote, and older voters have had the highest turnout rates since the 1980s. Another factor is increased political involvement among ethnic minorities; while white voters have traditionally had the highest turnout rates in presidential elections, black voters turnout has exceeded the national average since 2008. Asian and Hispanic voter turnouts have also increased in the past twenty years, with the growing Hispanic vote in southern and border states expected to cause a major shift in U.S. politics in the coming decades.

In terms of the most popular presidents, in the 1940 election, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president to have been elected by more than one fifth of the total population. Three presidents were elected by more than 22 percent of the total population, respectively Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Richard Nixon in 1972 and Barack Obama in 2008, while Ronald Reagan's re-election in 1984 saw him become the only president in U.S. history to win with the support of more than 23 percent of the total population. While the vote count for the 2020 election is still to be finalized, President-elect Joe Biden has already received 81.28 million votes as of December 02, which would also translate to over 24.5 percent of the total population, and will likely near 25 percent by the end of the counting process.

This statistic shows the share of voters in Pennsylvania in the 2016 presidential election, by age and voter registration status. In that year, 61 percent of voters ages 30 to 39 voted in the election.

In 2021, Jobbik and Momentum were the political parties chosen by most Hungarians between the ages of 18 to 39 years old. At the same time, MSZP was mostly chosen by citizens above the age of 59.

In 2024, the age group of 65 years and older in Mexico exhibited a significantly higher number of registered voters, totaling approximately 12.87 million individuals. The next highest number of registered voters was observed among the population aged between 20 and 24 years.

In U.S. presidential elections since 1964, voter turnout among male and female voters has changed gradually but significantly, with women consistently voting at a higher rate than men since the 1980 election. 67 percent of eligible female voters took part in the 1964 election, compared to 72 percent of male voters. This difference has been reversed in recent elections, where the share of women who voted has been larger than the share of men by around four percent since 2004.