Scottish electorate shows slight decrease in 2018

The number of people registered to vote in parliamentary and local elections in Scotland decreased slightly in 2018, according to figures published today by National Records of Scotland. This follows slight increases in the previous two years. The latest decrease is seen for both the UK Parliament electorate and for the Scottish Parliament and Local Government electorate.

At 1 December 2018:

• the total number of UK Parliament electors in Scotland was 3,925,800. This is a decrease of 24,800 (0.6%) on the previous year.
• the number of registered Scottish Parliament and Local Government electors also fell slightly to 4,105,800. This is a decrease of 15,300 (0.4%) on the previous year.
• there were 78,400 young people aged 16 or 17 registered to vote at Scottish Parliament and Local Government elections, accounting for 1.9% of the total electorate. This is a decrease of 5,200 (6.2%) on the previous year.
• over a sixth of the Scottish electorate was registered for postal voting at 1 December 2018. Over the last decade this proportion has generally increased; it was a tenth in 2008.
• there were 132,800 (non-UK) EU citizens registered to vote in Scottish Parliament and Local Government elections, an increase of 7,800 (6.2%) on the previous year and nearly three times higher than the 45,800 figure for 2008. This represented 3.2% of the total electorate in 2018 and is the highest recorded number of EU citizens registered to vote in Scotland, although the latest year-on-year increase is smaller compared with the increases recorded between 2015 and 2016 (18.0%) and 2016 and 2017 (10.4%).

The publication Electoral Statistics - Scotland 1st December 2018 and an Infographic are available on this website.