Youth participation: why the youngest eligible voters vote least, and what changes it

In plain words

Youth participation refers to how often young adults, usually ages 18 to 29, register, vote, and take part in public life. In the November 2024 election, citizens aged 18 to 24 reported voting at 47.7 percent, compared with 75.2 percent of citizens aged 65 to 74, according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.

Young people move more, change schools and jobs, and are often registering for the first time. Each of those makes voting a little harder. There is also a deeper pattern: people who vote once are more likely to vote again. So if a young person misses the first few elections, the habit may start late, or not at all. Some people think this calls for changes, such as signing up 16 and 17 year olds in advance. Others think it is simply a stage of life that fixes itself.

The problem, stated precisely

The youth participation problem has three parts:

1. The gap. Young citizens register and vote at lower rates than older citizens.
2. The persistence question. Whether missing early elections lowers participation for years afterward.
3. The representation consequence. If the electorate is older than the population, officials may hear less from the young; see unequal participation and representation gap.

This page uses U.S. data unless stated. It does not cover civic knowledge in schools, which is on civic education, or the question of whether noncitizens or minors should vote at all, which belongs to governance and to each jurisdiction’s law.

Defined terms

• Youth. In most U.S. research, ages 18 to 29. The Census tables used here report 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 separately.
• Self-reported turnout. The share of survey respondents who say they voted. It tends to run above official counts.
• Voter-file estimate. A turnout estimate built from official records of who voted, matched to population estimates. CIRCLE at Tufts University publishes youth estimates using this kind of data.⁠¹
• Preregistration. Allowing 16 or 17 year olds to register in advance so they are on the rolls when they turn 18.⁠²
• Habit formation. The finding that voting in one election raises the chance of voting in later ones.⁠³

Evidence

The gap, by age

The Census Bureau’s November 2024 Current Population Survey tables report the following for U.S. citizens:⁠⁴

The denominator for each row is citizens in that age group, and the figures are self-reports. The pattern rises steadily with age until the oldest group.

CIRCLE’s final estimate of 2024 turnout among 18 to 29 year olds was 47 percent, released in April 2025, with state estimates for 40 states.⁠¹ CIRCLE also reported that white youth were 66 percent of young voters in 2024 but 56 percent of the eligible youth population, which means the youth electorate was less diverse than young people as a whole.⁠¹

Mobility

People who have recently moved vote less. In the same Census survey, citizens who had lived at their address less than one year reported voting at 60.0 percent, compared with 78.8 percent for those at their address five years or longer.⁠⁵ Young adults are more likely to have recently moved, though the Census table on residence does not break this down by age, so this page does not claim a specific youth figure.

Reasons given for not voting

Among registered citizens who did not vote in 2024, the Census Bureau asked why. Among 18 to 24 year olds, the most common reasons were “too busy, conflicting schedule” (22.3 percent), “not interested” (20.4 percent), and “out of town” (14.1 percent); “registration problems” were 5.3 percent.⁠⁶ Among nonvoters 65 and older, “illness or disability” led at 35.0 percent.⁠⁶ These are self-reported reasons from people who were already registered, so they say nothing about why unregistered young people did not vote.

Habit formation

Gerber, Green, and Shachar ran a randomized field experiment with 25,200 registered voters before the November 1998 election, urging some to vote by mail or in person. Those encouraged voted more in 1998 and also in November 1999 local elections, and the authors concluded that “voting in one election substantially increases the likelihood of voting in the future”.⁠³ If early voting builds a habit, then barriers at 18 may have effects that last.

Causes and competing explanations

• Life stage. Turnout rises with age in the Census data.⁠⁴ On this view, the gap reflects settling down, owning property, having children in school, and paying more attention to local government, and it narrows naturally.
• Mobility and registration. Recent movers vote less,⁠⁵ and registration must often be updated with each move. Students living away from home face questions about where to register.
• Habit not yet formed. If voting is habit forming,⁠³ first-time voters lack the habit by definition.
• Interest and efficacy. “Not interested” was the second most common reason among young registered nonvoters.⁠⁶ Some argue this reflects a sense that politics does not address young people’s concerns; others argue it reflects ordinary priorities at that age.
• Contact. Campaigns tend to contact likely voters, and young people are less likely to have voting histories that mark them as likely voters. This explanation is widely discussed; this page did not locate a primary measurement of it for 2024 and treats it as a hypothesis.

Who is harmed

Young adults themselves may be underrepresented when officials respond to the electorate rather than the population. Communities with many young residents, such as college towns, may see decisions made by a smaller, older electorate. Young people of color may be doubly underrepresented, since CIRCLE’s figures show the youth electorate was whiter than the youth population.⁠¹ Whether this harms policy outcomes is debated; see representation gap.

What has been tried elsewhere

Lowering the voting age to 18. The Twenty-sixth Amendment provides that the right of citizens “who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged” on account of age by the United States or any state.⁠⁷ It established the national minimum but did not, by itself, close the participation gap shown above.⁠⁴

Preregistration. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 22 states plus the District of Columbia allow preregistration, 18 at age 16 and 4 at age 17, and says “A series of studies have shown that preregistration has a positive effect on youth turnout”.⁠² Limits: the size of the effect varies across studies, and preregistration helps only if the record follows the person when they move.

Votes at 16. Several jurisdictions let 16 and 17 year olds vote. According to a secondary compilation, Austria lowered its voting age to 16 for all levels in 2007, Brazil set optional voting at 16 in its 1988 constitution, Malta lowered it for general elections in 2018, Scotland and Wales use 16 for their own parliaments and local elections, and Takoma Park, Maryland became the first U.S. city to allow 16 year olds to vote in municipal elections in 2013.⁠⁸ Supporters argue 16 is a more stable age for a first vote, while living at home and in school. Results: participation data for these places is beyond what this page verified, so no effect is claimed here.

Making registration automatic. Automatic voter registration, which NCSL lists in 24 states and the District of Columbia, adds people through routine agency transactions;⁠⁹ see ballot access.

Competing interpretations

The structural view holds that the youth gap is largely produced by rules: registration that resets with each move, deadlines, and the lack of a habit-building first vote. Supporters favor preregistration, automatic registration, and campus polling places, and cite habit research.⁠³ and NCSL’s summary of preregistration studies⁠²

The life-cycle view holds that young adults vote less because they are at a stage of life with other priorities, and that the gap closes as they age.⁠⁴ On this view, changing rules to raise youth turnout is not obviously a public good, and voting should reflect choices people make when they are ready.

The votes-at-16 debate divides people along different lines. Supporters argue earlier first votes build habits at a stable stage. Opponents argue the voting age should match other adult responsibilities, that 16 year olds may be more influenced by parents and teachers, and that changing the electorate’s composition invites suspicion that the goal is partisan advantage.

The integrity concern held by some is that student and youth registration drives can produce duplicate or out-of-date registrations, and that rules for where students register should be clear. Supporters of easier registration respond that duplicate records are an administrative problem, not evidence of double voting. This page does not have measured data on either claim and does not resolve it.

The interest view takes “not interested” seriously:⁠⁶ if many young people do not see politics as addressing their concerns, then registration changes will move turnout only a little, and the deeper problem is responsiveness.

Application to this framework

My Vote Forward is built around participation between elections, not only on election day; see participation over time. That matters for young people who may care about subjects long before they cast a first ballot. Priorities let anyone say what matters most to them without needing to know candidates or measures. Representation separates a participant from a constituent, which matters because participants in an educational tool may include people too young to vote. The measurement chapter explains why a group of voluntary participants is not a sample of young people.

Unresolved questions

• How much of the youth gap is life stage, and how much is rules? The data above cannot separate them.
• Does habit formation apply equally to young first-time voters, and does a habit formed at 16 differ from one formed at 18⁠³?
• What would reliable evidence on votes at 16 look like for U.S. local elections?
• Does participation in non-electoral civic activity build later voting, or substitute for it?