Why automatic voter registration could be one solution to waning engagement

The turnout gap between homeowners and renters widened to 19 percentage points last year, up by a quarter since 2017

- Eleni Courea

A healthy democracy depends on people participating in it. In the UK, the number of people doing so is falling. Voter turnout in general elections stayed above 70% from 1945 to 1997, and was more than 80% in 1950 and 1951. But it collapsed to 59.4% when Tony Blair won his second term in 2001 and, though it rose again between 2010 and 2019, it has not reached the 70% mark since 1997. In the 2024 election, turnout was 59.7%.

The decline has been acute enough to trigger concern among Labour officials - before July, the Guardian revealed they were drawing up plans to introduce automatic voter registration (AVR). In the 2024 election just 52% of adults living in the UK exercised their right to vote - the lowest proportion since universal suffrage was introduced. Crucially this statistic counts all adults eligible to vote in the UK, not just those who are registered on the electoral roll.