Nearly 3 million people have applied to register to vote since the general election was called on 22 May — down by a quarter from the same period before the 2019 general election.
In 2019, the general election was called on 29 October and the deadline to register was 26 November. In that period 3.85m people applied to register in this period cmpared to 2.90m this time.
Over 630,000 people applied to register to vote yesterday alone (18 June), as the deadline approached at midnight. This is the second-highest number on record, broken only on the 26 November 2019, when 660,000 people registered in one day.
The latest figure of people on the parliamentary electoral register in the UK is 46,652,520, but it has not been updated since December 2023.
Gen-Z not showing up?
There has been much discussion over young voters not being democratically involved — with an exclusive Independent poll showing that a third of young people do not plan to vote.
In fact, registration application among the youngest group of voters (18-25) is at just half of the 2019 equivalent period; with just 746,000 Gen-Z voters registering to vote since the election was called this year, compared to 1.4 million in the lead-up to the 2019 general election.
It is also worth noting that a large chunk of the current under-25s group were not of voting age at the last general election. Therefore, a substantial portion of Gen-Z voters will not be registered to vote in this election, compared to other age groups.
Nonetheless, people aged 35 and under were flocking to register to vote at the final hour, more than any other age group. Over half (55 per cent) of all registrations yesterday were in the 18-34 age group, and 164,000 of these were people aged 25 and under.
People aged 25-34 have been the most keen to register overall, with 896,825 registrations since 22 May alone.
Though the registration deadline has passed, applications for postal vote are still open until today (19 June) at 5pm.
Voters in the July 4 general election will also need a valid form of photo ID, including a passport, driving licence, or blue badge.
