In the 2019 elections for the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union, the share of registered voters who exercised their right to vote was on average 50.66 percent across the EU. This differed dramatically between different EU member states, with over 80 percent of voters turning out in Belgium and Luxembourg, while less than 30 percent voted in Slovakia, Czechia, Slovenia, and Croatia. Low voter turnout has been a persistent problem in EP elections, with this being seen as harmful to the legitimacy of the parliament. Nevertheless, the turnout in 2019 marked a dramatic increase from the previous election in 2014, when turnout was a full 8 percentage points less, at 42.61 percent.

This statistic presents the voter turnout in the U.S. presidential elections from 1908 to 2012. Voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections in 1908 stood at **** percent. Additional information on voter turnout in the United States presidential elections Despite widespread societal and economic changes voter turnout has generally fluctuated between ** and ** percent. Turnouts above ** percent are rare and have not been witnessed since the middle of the 20th Century when American voter turnout was comparably higher. In the United States voting in presidential elections is not legally mandatory as it is in some countries such as Australia. Therefore, many American voters choose to remain absent from the ballot box every four years. In contrast to mid-term elections, years in which the bi-annual congressional elections take place in the absence of presidential campaigns, presidential elections enjoy a relatively larger degree of public attention. This difference could be seen to reflect a population who perceives the power of the president to be of greater influence than the country’s congressional house. This perception is particularly apparent among the millennial population of the United States. Although many millennials harbor a substantial level of mistrust toward many major political and civil institutions, the role of president is seen as relatively more trustworthy. This trend may however be subject to change following the departure of President Obama who proved himself popular among the millennial population in successive campaign victories.

The product has been discontinued since: 08 Feb 2018.

The number of those who cast a vote or 'turn out' at an election includes those who cast blank or invalid votes. In Belgium, Luxembourg and Greece, voting is compulsory. In Italy, voting is a civic obligation (no penalty). The EU average was estimated by Eurostat on the basis of the trends observed in each of the Member States. The EU average refers to parliamentary elections for all countries, except for Cyprus (only presidential elections), France, Portugal and Romania (both parliamentary and presidential elections).

Resources with a wide array of statistics on voter turnout from select countries. It contains the most comprehensive global collection of voter turnout statistics from presidential and parliamentary elections.

Longitudinal cross-country secondary database on voter turnout in European countries (1990-2023), produced as a part of TRUEDEM: Trust in European Democracies (2023-2025) project, comprises secondary data on elections, turnout, and contextual indicators for 1990-2023 for 31 European countries. Data is presented for national parliamentary (lower chamber) and EU Parliament elections. Data sources include national and European voter registry and statistics, International IDEA, V-Dem, Eurostat, the Electoral Integrity Project etc. The database consists of 90 indicators grouped into 11 sections, including: country information and codes; democracy status; electoral system; corruption; media pluralism; country development; inequalities; demography; political fragmentation; number of votes and seats per each party in every country in elections; perceptions of electoral integrity; voter turnout.

In Sweden, voter turnout has traditionally been high. Since the 1970s, when a unicameral parliament was introduced in the country, the voter rate has never been lower than 80 percent. There was a gradual decrease in the turnout from 1982 to 2002, but has since increased, reaching 87.2 percent in the 2018 election, before falling slightly in 2022. In recent years, this was one of the highest voter turnouts worldwide.

Intro

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Eligibility varies by country, and the voting-eligible population should not be confused with the total adult population. Age and citizenship status are often among the criteria used to determine eligibility, but some countries further restrict eligibility based on sex, race, or religion.

Context

The historical trends in voter turnout in the United States presidential elections have been determined by the gradual expansion of voting rights from the initial restriction to white male property owners aged 21 or older in the early years of the country's independence, to all citizens aged 18 or older in the mid-20th century. Voter turnout in United States presidential elections has historically been higher than the turnout for midterm elections. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/U.S._Vote_for_President_as_Population_Share.png" alt="f">

Content

Turnout rates by demographic breakdown from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, November Voting and Registration Supplement (or CPS for short). This table are corrected for vote overreporting bias. For uncorrected weights see the source link.

Original source: https://data.world/government/vep-turnout

In the UK's general election of 2024 voter turnout was estimated to have been 60 percent, the lowest turnout since 2001, when it was 59.4 percent. Between 1922 and 1997 voter turnout never fell below 70 percent, but in 2001 it dropped to just 59.4 percent. Since that low point, voter turnout has gradually recovered and reached 72.2 percent in the Brexit Referendum of 2016, which is still some way off the peak of 83.9 percent recorded in the 1950 General Election. The trend of low voter turnouts in recent times is also reflected in the European elections, which had its lowest voter turnout in 2014 at 42.61 percent. Labour rides wave of discontent to power in 2024 Labour's victory in the 2024 general election was broadly anticipated, with Keir Starmer's party enjoying a comfortable lead in opinion polls from late 2021 onwards. This gap widened further during Liz Truss' short time as Prime Minister, following an acute economic crisis in late 2022 which saw her resign after just 44 days, and propel Rishi Sunak to power. Although Sunak restored a degree of stability after the reigns of his predecessors, Johnson and Truss, he ultimately failed to convince the public he could address the main issues facing the country. By the time of the election, Labour was seen as being more competent on the economy, immigration, and healthcare, the three major issues for voters on the eve of the election. Among prospective Labour voters, the main reason for almost half of people intending to vote for them was to "get the Tories out", compared with just five percent who agreed with their policies. A winter election in 2019 The irregular timing of the 2019 general election, which took place on December 12, 2019, was due to the political chaos caused by Brexit, and the failure of the UK to agree a deal to leave the European Union that year. The Conservatives won 365 seats in this election, achieving a large enough majority to get their Brexit deal approved in the House of Commons after three and a half years of political chaos. Although the Conservatives then led the polls throughout much of 2020 and 2021, their popularity proceeded to sink considerably, especially due to Boris Johnson's alleged involvement in a number of political scandals, particularly that of "partygate". Following an avalanche of resignations from his government, Johnson himself resigned on July 7, 2022, paving the way for Truss to succeed him a few months later

This statistic shows the voter turnout rates for the 2010 United Kingdom (UK) general election, by country. The region with the highest turnout rate was England. Despite a comparatively low turnout in Northern Ireland, the UK percentage remained above 65.

The results of the 12nd Saeima elections — number of voters, valid envelopes, valid signs, amended, unaltered signs in the country, in the constituencies of the Saeima, abroad, by local governments and polling stations. The number of valid marks received by the candidate lists, percentages. Seats (mandates) in the country and constituencies. The number of valid, amended, unamended signs received by the candidate lists. Number of votes cast for Members’ candidates, pluses, deletions. Elected Members. Information on voter turnout in the country and in the constituencies of the Saeima on the election day, the number of votes cast for storage, see

When studying corruption’s consequences for voter turnout, reverse causality hinders identification; corruption may affect turnout, but an engaged citizenry may also improve governance. However, because good instruments are hard to find, most studies do not adjust for the issue. Here, I surmount the endogeneity problem by predicting turnout among second generation Americans with the level of corruption in their ancestral country. The core intuition is that the best predictors of turnout—education, income, and civic duty—are endogenous to corruption, internationally mobile, and reproduced inter-generationally. Thus, corruption in one country can affect turnout among the American-born children of the country’s émigrés. However, because turnout in US elections does not affect corruption in the ancestral country, there is no threat of reverse causality. Estimating the model with data from the Current Population Survey and the Varieties of Democracy Project reveals a statistically robust, substantively sizable negative effect of corruption on turnout.

This data collection contains information for elections in specified countries from the beginning of competitive national elections until December of 1981. Included are the United States presidential election returns and votes for members of the lower houses of parliament in the remaining countries in the survey. Votes are recorded for every party that had at least once secured 1 percent or more of the valid vote in a national election. Some parties with fewer votes are included when this aids crossnational comparison, or when the separatist or regional character of the party may lead it to regard its own "nation" as smaller than the total electorate. The data are contained in three files. Part 4, Summary Information for Each Election [Year], contains summary information for each election, such as the size of the electorate, turnout, valid and invalid votes, total votes, and the number of seats in the legislature. Part 5, Number of Votes Cast for Each Party for Each Election [Votes], contains the number of votes cast for each party at each election. Part 6, Number of Seats Won by Each Party at Each Election [Seats], contains the number of seats won by each party at each election and the total number of seats in the legislature. Parts 1-3 are documentation files.

Despite the substantial body of research on compulsory voting’s (CV) relationship with turnout, much remains unknown about the role of different types of CV rules, their enforcement, and their ability to prevent the secular turnout decline observed around the world. Moreover, existing studies that leverage changes to compulsory voting laws are limited to a single country. We assemble rich new data on voter turnout and electoral legislation that, we believe, provide the most accurate and extensive cross-national measure of CV to date. We test three theoretically-derived hypotheses: that CV enforcement matters for participation; that enforcement’s effect is conditioned by state capacity; and that, only when CV is enforced, will it mitigate voter turnout’s post-1970 tendency to decline. We find support for each. We also find that the nature of sanctions for non-voting is irrelevant for participation.

As of November 2020, 66.8 percent of the eligible voting population in the United States voted in the 2020 presidential election. Voter turnout was highest in New Jersey and Minnesota.

Details on the data sources and more figures. (PDF)

In 2024, over 51 percent of EU citizens voted in the European parliamentary elections, the highest voter turnout since 1994, when it was 56 percent. The highest turnout occurred in the first set of European parliamentary elections, held in 1979, in which 61.99 percent of eligible Europeans voted. Voter turnout declined in every election subsequent election, however, reaching a low of 42.61 percent in 2014. Traditional parties maintain their majority in 2024 Although they run for national political parties during elections, European members of parliament are grouped into large pan-European political groups when they sit in the European Parliament. In the 2024 Elections, the group that won the most seats was the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) which won 185 seats, followed by the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) which won 137 seats. Populist parties win big in France, Germany, and Italy In three of the European Union’s largest countries, right-wing populist parties won an important number of seats in the European elections of 2024. In France Marine le Pen’s National Rally won 30 seats out 81. Meanwhile in Italy, the Brothers of Italy, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, managed to win 24 seats.

We propose and test a new model for predicting multiple quantitative measures of well-being globally at the country level based on the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), income inequality (Net Gini), and National Happiness Index (NHI; U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network world survey of life satisfaction). HDI consists of per-capita Gross National Income (economic well-being), average life expectancy (proxy for health well-being), and educational attainment (capabilities well-being). Using data on 105 countries representing 95% of the world’s population, a history of grassroots activism (Global Non-violent Action Database), civil liberties and political rights (Freedom Score), political and fiscal decentralization, and voter participation (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance) correlate with HDI and NHI. Citizen volunteering (Gallup Civic Engagement Index) predicts only NHI. In multivariate analyses, Freedom Score is the most robust predictor of all well-being measures, including income equality. Fiscal decentralization and voter turnout also predict HDI and NHI, controlling for other influences. Based on prior analyses in the Global Development of Applied Community Studies project, implications and recommendations are discussed for developing community human research and professional resources across 12 disciplines in countries where they are needed based on social justice, citizenship, well-being, inequality, human rights, and other development challenges. We recommend individual and community-level and qualitative analyses of the above predictors’ relationships with these same conceptualizations of well-being, as well as consideration of other social, cultural and political variables and their effect on well-being.

Wahlrecht in der Europäischen Union. Themen: Präferenz für die Wahl von Kandidaten des Aufenthaltslandes oder des Herkunftslandes in den Europawahlen im Falle eigener Ansässigkeit in einem anderen EU-Land; erwartete höhere Wahlbeteiligung an Europa- und lokalen Wahlen durch Kandidaten, die Staatsangehörige anderer EU-Staaten sind; Nützlichkeit der folgenden Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung der Wahlbeteiligung an den Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament: mehr Informationen zu den Wahlen, mehr Informationen über den Einfluss der EU auf das tägliche Leben, mehr Informationen über die Programme und Ziele der Kandidaten und Parteien, Verdeutlichung der Zugehörigkeit von Parteien zu den Parteien im Europäischen Parlament in Wahlkampfunterlagen, bessere Informationen über die Kandidaten für das Amt des Präsidenten der Europäischen Kommission; Befürwortung des Rechts zur Ausübung bestimmter leitender Ämter für Bürger aus einem anderen EU-Land; Einstellung zu ausgewählten Aussagen im Hinblick auf die Vereinfachung der Teilnahme an Wahlen im Aufenthaltsland für Bürger aus einem anderen EU-Land: individuelle schriftliche Informationen zu Registrierung und Wahl, automatische Registrierung im Wählerverzeichnis bei Anmeldung des Wohnsitzes, Online-Verfahren zur Registrierung im Wählerverzeichnis, Möglichkeit zur elektronischen oder Online-Wahl, Möglichkeit zur Briefwahl; Einstellung zu ausgewählten Aussagen im Hinblick auf die Vereinfachung der Teilnahme an Wahlen im Herkunftsland von Bürgern aus einem anderen EU-Land: Möglichkeit zur Briefwahl, Möglichkeit zur elektronischen oder Online-Wahl, Möglichkeit zur Wahl in der Botschaft oder dem Konsulat des Herkunftslandes; Besorgnis bei der elektronischen, Online- bzw. Briefwahl bezüglich der folgenden Aspekte: Betrug, Geheimhaltung, Beeinflussung durch andere, Schwierigkeiten bei der Benutzung des Systems. Demographie: Alter; Geschlecht; Staatsangehörigkeit; Alter bei Beendigung der Ausbildung; Beruf; berufliche Stellung; Region; Urbanisierungsgrad; Besitz eines Mobiltelefons; Festnetztelefon im Haushalt; Haushaltszusammensetzung und Haushaltsgröße. Zusätzlich verkodet wurde: Befragten-ID; Land; Interviewmodus (Mobiltelefon oder Festnetz); Nationengruppe; Gewichtungsfaktor. Electoral rights in the European Union. Topics: preference to vote in European elections for candidates of country of residence or of country of origin in case of living in another EU country; probability of higher voter turnout in European and in local elections due to lists including candidates who are nationals of other EU countries; attitude towards the following measures with regard to increasing the turnout at European elections: more information on the elections, more information on the impact of the EU on daily life, more information on programmes and objectives of candidates and parties, display affiliation of political parties to European parties in campaign materials, better information about the candidates for the President of the European Commission; approval of the right of citizens from other EU countries to not only stand as candidate in municipal elections but also for certain executive offices; attitude towards selected statements with regard to simplify voting in the country of residence for citizens from other EU countries: individual letters with information on registration and voting, automatic registration on the electoral roll as result of registering as resident, online process for registering on the electoral roll, possibility to vote electronically or online, possibility to vote by post; attitude towards selected statements with regard to simplify voting in the country of origin for citizens living in other EU countries: possibility to vote by post, possibility to vote electronically or online, possibility to vote in embassy or consulate of country of origin; concern about each of the following with regard to voting electronically, online, or by post: fraud, secrecy, influence by others, difficulty of the system to use. Demography: age; sex; nationality; age at end of education; occupation; professional position; region; type of community; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; household composition and household size. Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; type of phone line; nation group; weighting factor.

The module was administered as a post-election interview. The resulting data are provided along with voting, demographic, district and macro variables in a single dataset.

CSES Variable List The list of variables is being provided on the CSES Website to help in understanding what content is available from CSES, and to compare the content available in each module.

Themes: MICRO-LEVEL DATA:

Identification and study administration variables: weighting factors;election type; date of election 1st and 2nd round; study timing (post election study, pre-election and post-election study, between rounds of majoritarian election); mode of interview; gender of interviewer; date questionnaire administered; primary electoral district of respondent; number of days the interview was conducted after the election

Demography: age; gender; education; marital status; union membership; union membership of others in household; current employment status; main occupation; employment type - public or private; industrial sector; occupation of chief wage earner and of spouse; household income; number of persons in household; number of children in household under the age of 18; attendance at religious services; religiosity; religious denomination; language usually spoken at home; race; ethnicity; region of residence; rural or urban residence

Survey variables: respondent cast a ballot at the current and the previous election; respondent cast candidate preference vote at the previous election; satisfaction with the democratic process in the country; last election was conducted fairly; form of questionnaire (long or short); party identification; intensity of party identification; political parties care what people think; political parties are necessary; recall of candidates from the last election (name, gender and party); number of candidates correctly named; sympathy scale for selected parties and political leaders; assessment of the state of the economy in the country; assessment of economic development in the country; degree of improvement or deterioration of economy; politicians know what people think; contact with a member of parliament or congress during the past twelve months; attitude towards selected statements: it makes a difference who is in power and who people vote for; people express their political opinion; self-assessment on a left-right-scale; assessment of parties and political leaders on a left-right-scale; political information items

DISTRICT-LEVEL DATA:

number of seats contested in electoral district; number of candidates; number of party lists; percent vote of different parties; official voter turnout in electoral district

MACRO-LEVEL DATA:

founding year of parties; ideological families of parties; international organization the parties belong to; left-right position of parties assigned by experts; election outcomes by parties in current (lower house/upper house) legislative election; percent of seats in lower house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of seats in upper house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of votes received by presidential candidate of parties in current elections; electoral turnout; electoral alliances permitted during the election campaign; existing electoral alliances; most salient factors in the election; head of state (regime type); if multiple rounds: selection of head of state; direct election of head of state and process of direct election; threshold for first-round victory; procedure for candidate selection at final round; simple majority or absolute majority for 2nd round victory; year of presidential election (before or after this legislative election); process if indirect election of head of state; head of government (president or prime minister); selection of prime minister; number of elected legislative chambers; for lower and upper houses was coded: number of electoral segments; number of primary districts; number of seats; district magnitude (number of members elected from each district); number of secondary and tertiary electoral districts; compulsory voting; votes cast; voting procedure; electoral formula; party threshold; parties can run joint lists; requirements for joint party lists; possibility of apparentement; types of apparentement agreements; multi-party endorsements; multi-party endorsements on ballot; ally party support; constitu...

Kenntnis des Wahlrechts von EU-Bürgern. Einschätzung von möglichen Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung der Wahlbeteiligung bei EU-Parlamentswahlen. Themen: Kenntnis des passiven bzw. aktiven Wahlrechts von EU-Bürgern auf kommunaler, regionaler, nationaler und europäischer Ebene; Einstellung zu einem aktiven bzw. passiven Wahlrecht von europäischen Ausländern bei regionalen und nationalen Wahlen; Präferenz zur Wahl des Kandidaten aus dem Aufenthaltsland oder des Heimatlandes bei EU-Wahlen; vermutete höhere Wahlbeteiligung bei EU-Wahlen und Kommunalwahlen, wenn auch Staatsangehörige anderer Mitgliedsstaaten kandidieren; Einschätzung der Erhöhung der Wahlbeteiligung auf europäischer Ebene bei: der Verlegung des Wahldatums von Juni auf Mai, Verfügbarkeit von mehr Informationen zu Wahlprogrammen und Zielen der Kandidaten sowie Parteien, mehr Informationen über den Einfluss der Wahl auf das tägliche Leben, gleichem Wahltag in allen EU-Ländern. Demographie: Geschlecht; Alter; Alter bei Beendigung der Ausbildung; Beruf; berufliche Stellung; Urbanisierungsgrad. Zusätzlich verkodet wurde: Interviewer-ID; Interviewsprache; Land; Interviewdatum; Interviewdauer (Interviewbeginn und Interviewende); Interviewmodus (Mobiltelefon oder Festnetz); Anzahl der Kontaktversuche; Region; Gewichtungsfaktor. Electoral rights in the European Union. Topics: knowledge test on the electoral rights of citizens of the EU: a citizen of the EU living in the country has the right to vote or to stand as a candidate in municipal elections, in regional elections (only in AT, BE, CZ, DK, DE, ES, FR, IT, NL, PL, SK, SE, UK), in elections to the national Parliament and in European Parliament elections; attitude towards electoral rights for EU-citizen living in another EU country than their country of origin: the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in regional elections in the country of residence, the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in national elections in the country of residence; preference to vote in European elections for candidates of country of residence or of country of origin in case of living in another EU country; probability of higher voter turnout in European elections due to lists including candidates who are nationals of other EU countries; attitude towards the following measures with regard to increasing the turnout at European elections: switch polling date from June to May, more information on the elections, more information on programmes and objectives of candidates and parties, more information on the impact of the EU on daily life, polling on the same day across the EU; probability of higher voter turnout in local elections due to lists including candidates who are nationals of other EU countries. Demography: sex; age; age at end of education; occupation; professional position; type of community. Additionally coded was: interviewer ID; language of the interview; country; date of interview; time of the beginning of the interview; duration of the interview; type of phone line; call history; region; weighting factor.