Size of the electoral registers in 2023

In Scotland and Wales, 16 and 17 year-olds can vote in Scottish Parliament, Senedd and local council elections. This change was introduced in 2015 in Scotland and 2020 in Wales.

In Scotland, 76,134 16 and 17 year-olds were registered on the local government registers at the conclusion of the 2023 canvass (see Table 4). This represents a -1.1% decline from 2022. The drop could be due to a lack of electoral events in Scotland since the 2022 council elections.

EROs across Scotland continue to engage with 16 and 17 year-olds using a variety of methods including direct mailing, phone/text communications, contact with schools and universities, issuing press releases, social media activity, distributing newsletters, and local advertising, as well as local activity with partner organisations.

In Wales, 33,929 16 and 17 year-olds were on the local government registers on 1 December 2023. This represents a -7.6% decrease from 2022, meaning that the number of registered 16 and 17 year olds has fallen back to the levels of 2021. Taken with ONS mid-year population estimates for Wales for 2022, our canvass data suggests that just under half of 16 and 17 year-olds in Wales are currently included on the local government registers1 .

There has been an attempt by Welsh Government to support an increase in registration numbers and ensure the electoral register is complete and accurate. Between September 2021 and September 2022 Welsh Government offered each local authority election team grant funding of up to £25,000 to recruit a dedicated officer to work on improving the rates of electoral registration among the newly enfranchised and hard to-reach groups. While the grant scheme did not operate beyond September 2022, the overall settlement to local authorities was increased in 2022-23 by 9.4% to help local authorities to consider long term planning in electoral services. 
 

At the time of the 2023 canvass, a UK citizen living abroad who has been registered to vote in the UK in the past 15 years could apply to be an overseas voter and this registration had to be renewed annually. The total number of overseas electors on the 2023 registers in Great Britain was 62,169.

This is a decrease of -22.0% since the publication of the registers in 2022. It is a continuation in the decline of registered overseas electors that has been ongoing since 2019. The decline is likely a consequence of the fact that there has not been an election in which overseas electors can vote since the 2019 UK Parliamentary general election.

The Elections Act 2022 extends the number of overseas citizens who will be eligible to register and vote, and also changes the requirement to renew registration annually to every three years. The extension of eligibility could result in a high volume of applications close to the next UK Parliamentary general election, which EROs will need to be prepared to manage. We are carrying out targeted support and engagement activities with EROs ahead of the next UK Parliamentary general election.
 

The number of anonymous electoral register entries on the parliamentary registers in Great Britain decreased from 2,842 in 2022 to 2,636 in 2023 (Table 6).

Anonymous registration is available for people meeting certain requirements, whose safety, or the safety of someone in the same household, is at risk. People registered anonymously appear on the electoral register without their name and address.