A new survey by Kantar has found that just 14% of young people aged 18 to 24 will ‘definitely vote’ in the upcoming UK General Election. 57% of this age group said they ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ will not vote.
This is compared to 79% of over 65s who said they will definitely vote, alongside 50% of 55 to 64 year olds, and 48% of 45 to 54 year olds. In every UK General Election of this millenium, youth voter turnout has been estimated as being below 50%, whereas in previous years turnout had been at a comparable rate as older voters.
Kantar interviewed a representative sample of 1,205 adults in living in Great Britain between the 27th of April and the 2nd of May.
It comes after the recent local elections received some of the worst ever turnouts with an average of just 28% of the electorate participating in the new devolved Mayoral Elections.
Politicians and public figures across the political spectrum have been actively encouraging young people to register to vote in recent weeks. Since the snap General Election was called, more than 930,000 people have applied to register to vote, including almost 400,000 people aged under 25. The vast majority have been registering online.
The highest number of registrations was on the day the Prime Minister called the General Election, when just over 150,000 people registered to vote. 98% of these registrations were made online.
A WebRoots Democracy/YouGov poll commissioned after the EU referendum last year, found that the option to vote online could have increased voter turnout amongst younger people by as much as 1.2 million.
Details of the Kantar survey can be downloaded here.
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