A legal voting age is the minimum age that a person is allowed to vote in a democratic process. Most nations use 18 years of age as their voting age, but for other countries their voting age ranges between 16 and 21 (with the sole exception of the United Arab Emirates where the voting age is 25). A nation's voting age may therefore coincide with the country's age of majority, but in many cases the two are not tied.
History In 1891, the South African Republic, commonly known as the Transvaal Republic, set a voting age of 18 years. The effort was, like later legislation expanding voting rights for women and impoverished whites, in part an attempt to skew the electorate further in favor of Afrikaner interests against uitlanders.
Prior to the Second World War of 1939–1945, the voting age in almost all countries was 21 years or higher. The U.S. state of Georgia lowered its age to 18 by referendum in 1943, for all elections including Congress and President, on the basis that many under 21 were at war; Kentucky followed suit in 1955. In 1946, Czechoslovakia became the first state to reduce the voting age nationally to 18 years, and by 1968 a total of 17 countries had lowered their voting age.
Australia, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland had lowered their voting age to 20 by the end of the 1960s.
Many major democratic countries, beginning in Western Europe and North America, reduced their voting ages to 18 years during the 1970s, starting with the United Kingdom (Representation of the People Act 1969), Canada, West Germany (1970), the United States (26th Amendment, 1971), Australia (1974), France (1974), Sweden (1975) and others. It was argued that if young men could be drafted to go to war at 18, they should be able to vote at the age of 18.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries voting ages were lowered to 18 in Japan,Young voters hope to reform Japan's 'silver democracy' . The Japan Times. Published 8 July 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2018. India, Switzerland, Austria, the Maldives, and Morocco. By the end of the 20th century, 18 had become by far the most common voting age. However, a few countries maintain a voting age of 20 years or higher, and a few countries have a lower voting age of 16 or 17.
2020 to 2021 The vast majority of countries and territories have a minimum voting age of 18-years-old as of October 2020. According to data from the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, 205 countries and territories have a minimum voting age of 18 for national elections out of 237 countries and territories the organization has data on as of October 2020. As of the aforementioned date, 12 countries or territories have a minimum voting age of less than 18, with 3 countries or territories at 17-years-old, and 9 countries or territories at 16-years-old. 16-years-old is the lowest minimum age globally for national elections, while the highest is 25-years-old which is only the case in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This age of 25 was also the case in Italy for Senate (upper house) elections until it was lowered to 18 in 2021. Italy's lower house of Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, has had a minimum voting age of 18 since 1975, when it was lowered from 21.
Debate on lowering the voting age
Around 2000, a number of countries began to consider whether the voting age ought to be reduced further, with arguments most often being made in favor of a reduction to 16. In Brazil, the age was lowered to 16 in the 1988 Constitution, while the lower voting age took effect for the first time in the 1989 Presidential Election. The earliest moves in Europe came during the 1990s, when the voting age for municipal elections in some States of Germany was lowered to 16. Lower Saxony was the first state to make such a reduction, in 1995, and four other states did likewise.
In 2007, Austria became the first european country to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in national elections, with the expanded franchise first being consummated in the 2009 European Parliament election. A study of young voters' behavior on that occasion showed them to be as capable as older voters to articulate their beliefs and to make voting decisions appropriate for their preferences. Their knowledge of the political process was only insignificantly lower than in older cohorts, while trust in democracy and willingness to participate in the process were markedly higher. Additionally, there was evidence found for the first time of a voting boost among young people age 16–25 in Austria.
During the 2000s several proposals for a reduced voting age were put forward in U.S. states, including California, Florida and Alaska,Worldwide Efforts to Lower the Voting Age , National Youth Rights Association but none were successful. In Oregon, Senate Joint Resolution 22 has been introduced to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16. A national reduction was proposed in 2005 in CanadaParliament of Canada, Bill C-261 (2005); Vote16, Canada and in the Australian state of New South Wales,Parliament of New South Wales, Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Amendment (Voting Age) Bill (2005); Hansard, 14 September 2005, p. 17686 . but these proposals were not adopted. In May 2009, Danish Member of Parliament Mogens Jensen presented an initiative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg to lower the voting age in Europe to 16. In 2026 Hungary’s prime minister proposed lowering voting age to 16.
Demands to reduce the voting age to 16 years were again brought forward by activists of the school strike for climate movement in several countries (including Germany and the UK).
Australia After Premier Don Dunstan introduced the Age of Majority (Reduction) Bill in October 1970, the voting age in South Australia was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1973.
On 21 October 2019, Greens MP Adam Bandt introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to lower the voting age to 16.
A report suggesting that consideration be given to reducing the voting age to 16 in the Australian Capital Territory in Canberra, Australia was tabled in the territorial legislature on 26 September 2007 and defeated.
In 2015, federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said that the voting age should be lowered to 16.ABC News, 31 October 2015, Bill Shorten calls for voting age to be lowered to 16
Austria In 2007, Austria became the first member of the European Union to adopt a voting age of 16 for most purposes. The voting age had been reduced in Austria from 19 to 18 at all levels in 1992. At that time a voting age of 16 was proposed by the Green Party, but was not adopted.
The voting age for municipal elections in some states was lowered to 16 shortly after 2000.How old is old enough? - the minimum age of voting and candidacy in UK elections: consultation paper , July 2003, UK Electoral Commission, para. 3.6. Three states had made the reduction by 2003 (Burgenland, Carinthia and Styria), and in May 2003 Vienna became the fourth., Votes at 16. Retrieved 6 June 2007. Salzburg followed suit,Lowering the Electoral Age , Austrian National Youth Council. Retrieved 6 June 2007.Elections , Demokratiezentrum Wien. Retrieved 6 June 2007. and so by the start of 2005 the total had reached at least five states out of nine.Committee on Rights of Child Considers Second Periodic Report of Austria , UNHCHR, 14 January 2005. As a consequence of state law, reduction of the municipal voting age in the states of Burgenland, Salzburg and Vienna resulted in the reduction of the regional voting age in those states as well.
After the 2006 election, the winning SPÖ-ÖVP coalition announced on 12 January 2007 that one of its policies would be the reduction of the voting age to 16 for elections in all states and at all levels in Austria. The policy was set in motion by a Government announcement on 14 March, and a bill proposing an amendment to the Constitution was presented to the legislature on 2 May.94 d.B. (XXIII. GP) Bundesverfassungsgesetz, mit dem das Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz geändert wird , Republik Österreich Parlament (German). On 5 June the National Council approved the proposal following a recommendation from its Constitution Committee.Wählen mit 16, Briefwahl, fünfjährige Gesetzgebungsperiode kommen , Republik Österreich Parlament (German). Retrieved 6 June 2007.Verfassungsausschuss gibt grünes Licht für Wahlrechtsreform , Republik Österreich Parlament (German). Retrieved 25 May 2007. During the passage of the bill through the chamber relatively little opposition was raised to the reduction, with four out of five parties explicitly supporting it; indeed, there was some dispute over which party had been the first to suggest the idea. Greater controversy surrounded the other provisions of the bill concerning the Briefwahl, or postal vote, and the extension of the legislative period for the National Council from four to five years. A further uncontroversial inclusion was a reduction in the candidacy age from 19 to 18. The Federal Council approved the Bill on 21 June, with no party voting against it.Wahlrechtsreform 2007 passiert den Bundesrat , Republik Österreich Parlament (German). Retrieved 30 June 2007. The voting age was reduced when the Bill's provisions came into force on 1 July 2007.31/BNR (XXIII. GP) Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz , ss. 1, 5 and 25, Republik Österreich Parlament (German). Retrieved 1 July 2007. Austria thus became the first member of the European Union, and the first of the developed world democracies, to adopt a voting age of 16 for all purposes. Lowering the voting age encouraged political interest in young people in Austria. More sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds voted than eighteen-to-twenty-one-year-olds in Austria.
Brazil Brazil lowered the voting age from 18 to 16 in the 1988 constitution. The presidential election of 1989 was the first with the lower voting age. People between the ages 18 and 70 are required to vote. The person must be 16 full years old on the eve of the election (In years without election, the person must be 16 full years old on or before 31 December). If they turn 18 years old after the election, the vote is not compulsory. When they turn 18 years old before the election, the vote is compulsory.
Canada Canada lowered its federal voting age from 21 to 18 in 1970. Most Canadian provinces soon followed suit, though several initially lowered their voting age to 19. It wasn't until 1992 when the last province, British Columbia, lowered its voting age to 18. A further reduction to 16 years was proposed federally in 2005, but was not adopted. It was proposed again in 2011, but was not adopted.
In August 2018, in British Columbia, a group of 20 youth partnered with Dogwood BC to launch a Vote16 campaign. Currently, they have unanimous support from the Union of BC Municipalities, as well as endorsements from the province's Green Party of British Columbia and British Columbia New Democratic Party representatives. The campaign is now waiting for it to be brought up in the legislative assembly by the NDP and for it to pass there.
In 2020, Canadian Senator Marilou McPhedran introduced a bill to lower the federal voting age from 18 to 16. She reintroduced it again in November 2021, (bill S-201), but it died on the floor when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025. In December 2021, a group of young people filed a court challenge to lower the federal voting age from 18, arguing that the voting age is unconstitutional for violating multiple sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Several weeks later, Taylor Bachrach of the New Democratic Party (NDP) introduced a private member's bill to lower the voting age to 16. The bill (C-210) was debated in May 2022. The bill was defeated in its second reading with 245 members of parliament voting to oppose the bill and 77 voting to support it.