Voting for elected officials is a freedom afforded to many countries around the world. Through voting, the people – in other words, us – get to have a voice in how our respective nations are run.
Many people realize just how important this freedom is, yet not everyone that is eligible to vote does. The reasons why vary – maybe a person isn’t interested in politics, doesn’t agree with the platforms or any of the other candidates, or doesn’t meet all of the requirements needed to legally vote.
In the 2016 national election in the United States, more than 46 million Americans showed up to vote for the next president. Though this was a very high voter turnout, this still lags behind many of the developed nations around the world.
Based on data from Pew Research Center, the nation with the highest voter turnout based on the country’s last national election was Belgium. In 2014, 87.2% of the voting age population showed up to cast their vote.
Sweden held its last election in 2014, which had a voter turnout of 82.6% of the voting age population. In 2017, South Korea had a voter turnout of 77.9% of its voting age population.
Coming in next on the list is Israel. In 2015, 76.1% of the eligible population cast their votes. In New Zealand, more than three-quarters of voters – 75.7% -- showed up at the polls in 2017.
Another nation with a high voter turnout was Germany. During its last election in 2017, 69.1% of voting age residents cast their ballots. France also had a high voter turnout of 67.9% in 2017. In the same year, the United Kingdom had a voter turnout of 63.2%.
Canada’s last election in 2015 drew in 62.1% of voters. Spain’s election of 2016 saw 61.2% of voters making their voices heard. The United States held its last election in 2016 and only 55.7% of voters showed up. This is ahead of Switzerland, however, which had a voter turnout of 38.6% during the election of 2015.