National Records of Scotland

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Electors top 4.2 million

Electors top 4.2 million

Tuesday, 30 Mar 2021
Demography News Release Image

Over 4.2 million people are registered to vote in Scottish elections as of 1st December 2020, representing an increase of 41,600 registered voters over the last year, according to statistics published by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

When comparing statistics for December 2020 with December 2019, the report shows:

  • 675,100 electors were registered for postal voting, representing a decrease of 15,700
  • 73,300 electors were aged 16 – 17 representing a decrease of 500 voters
  • 157,400 electors were from EU and other qualifying foreign nationals resident in Scotland representing an increase of 15,000 voters.

The total Scottish electorate registered to vote in UK Parliamentary elections was over 4 million, representing an increase of 23,900 when compared to the previous year.

As at December 2020, there were almost 200,000 more people registered to vote for the Scottish elections than the UK Parliamentary elections.

Sandy Taylor, Head of Electoral Statistics said:

“These latest statistics show a continuation of the overall upward trend that we have seen over the last ten years.”

“This trend is broadly consistent with the increase in the size of the population eligible to vote, which rose by around 5% over this period.”

The publication Electoral Statistics - Scotland 1st December 2020 is available on the NRS website.

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