BRITS up and down the country voted in the 2019 general election yesterday.
But how many people actually cast a vote and what’s the average general election turnout?
How many people turned out to vote?
Voters on Thursday took their pooches to polling stations up and down the country.
Many across the country tweeted their surprise to see massive queues outside stations.
But this general election saw a smaller turnout in comparison to two years ago.
Two-thirds of the electorate – 47,587,254 in total – showed up to cast there vote on Thursday.
This equated to a turnout of 67.4 per cent.
That’s down -1.49 per cent from 2017.
Meanwhile, Scotland saw a spike in voters with 68.1 per cent of the electorate voting compared to 66.5 per cent in 2017.
Wales had a significant drop in turnout – with a 2 per cent turnout dip from the last general election.
The turnout in 2017 after all the votes had been counted stood at 69 per cent with 46.8 million people voting.
The 2017 figure of 69 per cent is far higher than France, which fell from 55.4 per cent to just 42.6 per cent.
It’s also greater than Ireland at 65.1 per cent, Portugal at 55.8 per cent and Finland at 68.7 per cent.
The UK, however, is behind the likes of Spain (71.8 per cent), Germany (76.2 per cent), Italy (72.9 per cent), and the Netherlands (81.9 per cent).
The highest figure in Europe is recorded in Malta at 92 per cent, while the lowest is in Romania at just 37.8 per cent.
What is the average UK general election turnout?
Turnout has steadily increased since 2001.
In 2001 59.4 per cent turned out to vote.
This was down 11.9 per cent in 1997.
Turnout reached 61.4 per cent in 2005, 65.1 per cent in 2010 and then up again to 66.1 per cent in 2015.
However, turnout remained above 70 per cent between the 1922 and 1997 general elections.
The five most recent polls have therefore been the five lowest turnouts since 1918.
The highest ever turnouts the UK has seen came in 1950 and 1951 at 83.9 per cent and 82.6 per cent.
These have been the only occasions when turnout passed 80 per cent.
