Voter turnout among those under the age of 30 was significantly higher in last week’s election than it was in the 2015 general election.

However, it was lower than the 72% figure that was circulated in the immediate wake of the vote.

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According to YouGov, 57% of voters aged 18 to 19 voted, while turnout among those aged 20 to 24 was 59%. With those aged 25 to 29 turnout was higher still, at 64%.

This is far more than in 2015, when just 43% of voters aged 18 to 24 went to the polls.


But the actual youth turnout figure is much lower than the initial predicted figure of 72%, which was quoted by the head of the NUS and MP David Lammy in the wake of the election.

And far fewer young people voted than their older counterparts. Turnout was an incredibly high 84% among those aged 70 and over.



Even so, it was undoubtedly young people who were behind Labour’s unprecedented success.

At least 66% of voters aged 18 to 19, 62% of voters aged 20 to 24, and 63% of voters aged 25 to 29 voted Labour.

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This is compared to voters aged 70-plus, who voted overwhelmingly for the Tories.

But even older voters became less and less likely to vote Tory as the campaign went on.

According to YouGov: ‘For every 10 years older a voter is, their chance of voting Tory increases by around nine points and the chance of them voting Labour decreases by nine points.

‘The tipping point, that is the age at which a voter is more likely to have voted Conservative than Labour, is now 47 – up from 34 at the start of the campaign.’

Interestingly, however, YouGov also found that the more educated a voter was, the more likely they were to vote Labour.

The opposite held true for the Tories.

That is, the less education someone had had, the more likely they were to back the Conservatives.

‘Among those with low educational qualifications (defined as GCSE or equivalent or below), the Conservatives beat Labour by 22%,’ YouGov said.

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‘However, amongst those with high level educational qualifications (defined as degree-level or above), Labour led by 17 percentage points.

‘Part of this relationship is down to age – the expansion of education means that, on average, the young have more qualifications than the old, although the Conservatives still have a “graduation problem” even after accounting for this.’

And perhaps unsurprisingly, 63% of retired people backed the Tories, while almost an equal number – 64% – of students backed Labour.