Americans exercise their right not to participate in the political process more than the citizens of most other developed nations, the Pew Research Center reports.
The United Kingdom will elect a new Parliament Thursday — joining Greece, Israel and Finland, among others countries that have held national elections this year. Poland, Canada, Mexico and Turkey will also hold elections in the coming weeks and months. All those countries have higher voter turnout than the United States, which will elect a new president 18 months.
Here are the voter turnout statistics, from the new Pew report.
The United States ranks 31st among the 34 countries in voter turnout among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development. Japan, Chile and Switzerland all have lower turnout than the United States.
Belgium, Turkey, Sweden, Denmark and Australia are the top five countries in voter turnout. Of those, Belgium, Turkey and Australia all have compulsory voting laws, and Australia enforces its forced-voting law with fines on non-voters.
The calculations done by Pew Research Center were based on data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, European Election Database, United States Elections Project, House Clerk’s office and various national election authorities.
