US President Barack Obama says the United States would be better off it were to follow the Australian example of making voting compulsory.

Speaking to students at the University of Chicago Law School on Thursday, Obama noted that the US has one of the lowest rates of voting in any industrialised country.

"Australia has got mandatory voting," Obama told students at the school where he once taught.

US President Barack Obama says if the US were to adopt Australian-style compulsory voting, there could be a 'transformative' change in US elections. AP

"You start getting 70-80 per cent voting rates, that's transformative."

"We really are the only advanced democracy on earth that systematically and purposely makes it really hard for people to vote," he said.