In 1950, 84 in every 100 registered voters cast a ballot. In July 2024 it was fewer than 60, and in Sittingbourne and Sheppey barely half. Kent Local News traced turnout at every general election since the mass franchise of 1918, and examined the reasons non-voters give.
Disclosure: the editor of Kent Local News is the founder of GB Freedom, a registered political party. This article relies only on figures published by the House of Commons Library, the Electoral Commission, NatCen Social Research, Ipsos, the Office for National Statistics and Kent County Council.
When the country went to the polls on 4 July 2024, 59.7 per cent of registered voters cast a valid vote. According to the House of Commons Library, that was the lowest general election turnout since 2001, and the 7.6-point fall from 2019 was the largest drop between two elections since 1997 to 2001. The think tank IPPR calculated that only about half of all adults living in the UK voted, which it described as “the lowest share of the population to vote since universal suffrage”.
In Kent the spread was wide. In Tonbridge, 69.1 per cent of the electorate voted. In Sittingbourne and Sheppey it was 51.9 per cent, the lowest of any constituency in the South East.
Kent Local News set out to answer two questions. Are fewer people voting than at any time since the vote was given to the mass of the public? And if so, what do the people who stay at home say is the reason?
How the public won the vote
Before 1918, the right to vote in parliamentary elections depended largely on property. The Representation of the People Act 1918 removed almost all property qualifications for men and gave the vote to women over 30 who met a property qualification. According to Parliament’s own history of the Act, the electorate tripled, from 7.7 million to 21.4 million, and women made up about 43 per cent of it.
Ten years later, the Equal Franchise Act, which became law on 2 July 1928, gave women the vote on the same terms as men, from the age of 21. Women became 52.7 per cent of potential voters, and the 1929 general election was the first fought on that franchise.
The last traces of plural voting went after the Second World War. The extra business vote was abolished in 1949 and the university constituencies were gone by the 1950 general election, so that each elector had one vote. The Representation of the People Act 1969 lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, and the 1970 general election was the first held under it. By 2024 the registered electorate stood at 48.2 million.
A century of general election turnout
The Commons Library measures turnout as valid votes cast as a share of the registered electorate. On that measure, these are the figures for every UK general election since 1918.
| Election | Turnout (%) |
|---|---|
| 1918 | 57.2 |
| 1922 | 73.0 |
| 1923 | 71.1 |
| 1924 | 77.0 |
| 1929 | 76.3 |
| 1931 | 76.4 |
| 1935 | 71.1 |
| 1945 | 72.8 |
| 1950 | 83.9 |
| 1951 | 82.6 |
| 1955 | 76.8 |
| 1959 | 78.7 |
| 1964 | 77.1 |
| 1966 | 75.8 |
| 1970 | 72.0 |
| Feb 1974 | 78.8 |
| Oct 1974 | 72.8 |
| 1979 | 76.0 |
| 1983 | 72.7 |
| 1987 | 75.3 |
| 1992 | 77.7 |
| 1997 | 71.4 |
| 2001 | 59.4 |
| 2005 | 61.4 |
| 2010 | 65.1 |
| 2015 | 66.2 |
| 2017 | 68.8 |
| 2019 | 67.3 |
| 2024 | 59.7 |
The low figure for 1918 is a special case. The election was held a month after the Armistice, and the Library attributes the low turnout partly to a low vote among servicemen, many of them still overseas, and to 107 of the 707 seats being uncontested.
High participation, a collapse in 2001, and a new low
Read as a whole, the table falls into three phases.
From 1922 to 1997, turnout never fell below 71 per cent. It peaked at 83.9 per cent in 1950, the first election held under one person, one vote, and was 82.6 per cent the following year.
In 2001 it fell by 12 points in a single election, from 71.4 per cent to 59.4 per cent. It then recovered steadily, to 68.8 per cent in 2017, before falling back to 59.7 per cent in 2024.
That makes 2024 the third-lowest turnout of the 29 general elections held since 1918, behind only 1918 itself and 2001. The Electoral Commission, which counts slightly differently, put 2024 turnout at 60.0 per cent against 67.5 per cent in 2019, and described it as the second lowest since 1928.
So the long-term decline is real, but it has not been a straight line. Turnout has fallen and recovered before.
Kent’s constituencies in 2024
Turnout across Kent and Medway’s 18 constituencies at the July 2024 general election, from the Commons Library’s results briefing:
| Constituency | Turnout (%) |
|---|---|
| Tonbridge | 69.1 |
| Tunbridge Wells | 68.9 |
| Sevenoaks | 67.7 |
| Weald of Kent | 66.7 |
| Canterbury | 66.4 |
| Faversham and Mid Kent | 62.7 |
| Herne Bay and Sandwich | 62.7 |
| Dover and Deal | 62.5 |
| Folkestone and Hythe | 61.7 |
| Ashford | 61.6 |
| Maidstone and Malling | 60.7 |
| Gravesham | 59.1 |
| Dartford | 59.0 |
| Rochester and Strood | 57.4 |
| East Thanet | 57.0 |
| Gillingham and Rainham | 56.0 |
| Chatham and Aylesford | 54.4 |
| Sittingbourne and Sheppey | 51.9 |
The pattern is clear. The four highest-turnout seats are all in west Kent. The lowest are in north Kent, the Medway towns, Thanet and the Isle of Sheppey. The gap between Tonbridge and Sittingbourne and Sheppey is more than 17 points.
Beyond general elections
General elections are the high-water mark. Other contests draw far fewer voters.
- Local elections: the Electoral Commission says turnout at English local elections was between 40 and 50 per cent in the 1980s and early 1990s, and is now more often below 35 per cent. It was 32.0 per cent in May 2023 and 34 per cent in May 2025.
- Kent County Council: turnout at the county council election on 1 May 2025 was 33 per cent, according to the council’s published results.
- Police and crime commissioners: the first elections in November 2012 had a turnout of 15.1 per cent, which the Electoral Commission called the lowest ever recorded in a nationwide election. In Kent it was 16.0 per cent in 2012 and 20.0 per cent in 2024.
- European Parliament: 24.0 per cent across the UK in 1999.
- Referendums: 64.0 per cent in 1975 on membership of the European Community, 42.0 per cent at the 2011 alternative vote referendum, and 72.2 per cent at the 2016 EU referendum, when 33,577,342 people voted. That was higher than at any general election since 1992.
Local by-elections can still draw a crowd when a contest is close. At the Guston, Kingsdown and St Margaret’s-at-Cliffe by-election in Dover district last month, turnout was 45 per cent.
What non-voters say
A government-commissioned Ipsos survey, carried out in July 2024 immediately after the general election, asked people who did not vote why. The most common answers were:
- did not want to vote for any of the available candidates: 20 per cent
- lack of trust in politicians or MPs: 18 per cent
- away or did not have time: 17 per cent (being away was the single most common main reason, at 15 per cent)
- the new photo ID requirement: 3 per cent
Not wanting any of the candidates and not trusting politicians were each given more often than being away or too busy.
The Electoral Commission’s own report on the 2024 election reached a similar conclusion in words. It found that non-voting was driven partly by the view that all parties are “the same”, and by a feeling that no party represented people’s views.
Photo ID, required at English local elections since May 2023 and at a general election for the first time in 2024, appears to have played a small part. The Commission estimates that about 16,000 people across Great Britain, 0.08 per cent of those who tried to vote at a polling station, could not vote in July 2024 because of the ID rule. About two-thirds of those first turned away came back with ID.
At local elections, the practical reasons weigh more heavily. After the May 2025 English local elections, the Commission found that 19 per cent of non-voters said they were too busy, 11 per cent that they were away, and 10 per cent that they were not interested in politics or were fed up with it.
Trust at record lows
The British Social Attitudes survey, run by NatCen Social Research, has asked the same question since 1986: how far do you trust British governments of any party to place the needs of the nation above the interests of their own political party?
- In 1986, 40 per cent said “just about always” or “most of the time”, and 12 per cent said “almost never”.
- In 2024, those figures were 12 per cent and 46 per cent. Both are the worst on record.
- The same survey found that 59 per cent almost never trust politicians of any party to tell the truth when they are in a tight corner.
Other measures point the same way. In the Ipsos Veracity Index for 2025, 9 per cent of people said they trust politicians to tell the truth, the joint-lowest figure since the index began in 1983. The Office for National Statistics’ latest Trust in Government survey, carried out in autumn 2023, found that 12 per cent of people trusted political parties.
“They’re all the same”
Since 1964, the British Election Study and then British Social Attitudes have asked voters whether they see a great difference between the Conservative and Labour parties. Set against turnout, the answers look like this:
| Election | See a “great difference” (%) | Turnout (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | 48 | 77.1 |
| 1970 | 33 | 72.0 |
| 1983 | 88 | 72.7 |
| 1987 | 85 | 75.3 |
| 1997 | 33 | 71.4 |
| 2001 | 17 | 59.4 |
| 2005 | 13 | 61.4 |
| 2017 | 45 | 68.8 |
| 2024 | 23 | 59.7 |
In the 1980s, more than eight in ten voters saw a great difference between the two main parties. By 2001 fewer than one in five did, and turnout fell to 59.4 per cent. In 2005 the figure reached its lowest point, 13 per cent. By 2017 it had recovered to 45 per cent, and turnout reached its highest level this century. In 2024 it fell back to 23 per cent, and turnout fell with it.
Since 1997 the two series have broadly moved together, although the link is weaker in earlier decades. In 1970 only a third of voters saw a great difference, yet 72 per cent voted. The figures do not prove that one causes the other. But they match what non-voters themselves tell pollsters.
Who is missing from the polling station
The young. Ipsos estimates that 37 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted in 2024, down from 47 per cent in 2019, compared with 73 per cent of those aged 65 and over. These estimates are shares of all adults, not of registered voters, so they are not directly comparable with official turnout, but the gap between the generations is large.
The unregistered. Official turnout counts only people on the electoral register. The Electoral Commission estimated in 2023 that between seven and eight million people in the UK were not correctly registered. The registers in Great Britain were 86 per cent complete, falling to 65 per cent among private renters. That is why the share of all adults who voted in 2024, about half according to IPPR, is lower than the headline turnout.
Not a question of convenience. Voting has become easier, not harder. Postal votes made up 26.2 per cent of valid ballots in 2024, up from 21.0 per cent in 2019 and about 2 per cent before postal voting on demand was introduced in 2001, according to the Commons Library. Postal voters turned out at 78.9 per cent, against 55 per cent at polling stations. Yet overall turnout still fell.
What happens next: votes at 16
The government’s response is to widen the franchise again. Its strategy Restoring trust in our democracy, published on 17 July 2025, proposed lowering the voting age to 16. The Representation of the People Bill, which would give the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds, completed its Commons stages on 2 September 2026. It received its second reading in the House of Lords on 14 September and is now awaiting committee stage there. It is not yet law.
What the figures show
Are fewer people voting than at any time since the vote was given to the public? At general elections, nearly so. Turnout in 2024 was the third lowest of the 29 elections since 1918, and roughly half of all adults did not vote. Turnout at local and police commissioner elections is lower still. But the decline has not been continuous. Turnout collapsed in 2001, recovered for 16 years, and fell again in 2024.
What non-voters say is also clear. At the last general election, not wanting any of the candidates and not trusting politicians were each cited more often than being away or too busy. Trust in governments to put the nation before party is at its lowest since the question was first asked in 1986. The share of voters who see a real difference between the two largest parties has fallen from 88 per cent in 1983 to 23 per cent.
The record also shows that people vote when they believe the result matters. It happened at the EU referendum in 2016 and at the general election a year later. Whether that belief returns is a question for every party that will ask Kent for its vote at the next election.
Have Britons given up on voting? A century of turnout, and what the people who stay at home say Quiz
8 questions
Sources
- House of Commons Library, UK Election Statistics: 1918-2023 (CBP-7529, 9 August 2023), Table 2a and referendum, European Parliament and PCC tables.
- House of Commons Library, General election 2024: Results and analysis (CBP-10009, 24 September 2024), turnout and constituency results.
- House of Commons Library, Police and Crime Commissioner elections 2024 (CBP-10030, 15 July 2024); Absent voting (CBP-7419, 21 July 2025).
- Electoral Commission, Report on the 2024 UK Parliamentary general election (November 2024); Voter ID at the 2024 UK general election; Report on the May 2025 local elections in England; 2023 report on the electoral registers; PCC elections 2012 electoral data.
- UK Parliament, histories of the Representation of the People Act 1918, the Equal Franchise Act 1928 and key dates; Representation of the People Bill (bill 4080) progress.
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Restoring trust in our democracy (17 July 2025); Ipsos, Evaluation of the Electoral Integrity Programme, public opinion research wave 3 (published 3 April 2025).
- NatCen Social Research, British Social Attitudes 42: Britain’s democracy (25 June 2025), Tables 8 and 11.
- Ipsos, How Britain voted in the 2024 election; Ipsos Veracity Index 2025.
- Office for National Statistics, Trust in Government, UK: 2023; IPPR, Half of us (12 July 2024); Kent County Council, county council election results, 1 May 2025.