English: Voter turnout in elections (in %) in the Western countries (since 1900/1945).
Criteria:
- For every country the diagram shows the voter turnout of the most important national political elections (Parliament, presidential, etc.);
- If in a country more than one election was held in the same year, the diagram displays the voter turnout of the latter one.
Voter turnout in every country displayed (as of 2022):
- Italy: Italy had a very high voter turnout - well above 90% - until the 1976 elections; It had an important fall by the 1994 and 1996 elections, due to the collapse of the "First Republic" system; another continuous fall is in place since the 2008 elections... and now in 2022, just a little above 60% Italy has, among the important western countries, one of the lowest voter turnout ever;
- France: French voter turnout has always been around 80%, despite 2002 and 2022 elections;
- Germany: German voter turnout has been at 85% and more from the 50s to the 80s, but since reunification, it is only around 75%;
- Sweden: Seden has been at around 90% voter turnout from the late '60s to the mid-80s, but then it fell to 86% for the 1988-1994 elections; after the scandalous period thereafter (Swedish prime minister resigning just some months after the great 1994 victory and the EU referendum, leaving the entire Sweden and the Socialdemocratic party and de facto with no leadership), in the 1998-2006 election period the turnout stood at around 81%, starting to arise from the 2010 election due to the "Swedish democrats" party (centre-right/far-right) becoming more and more popular.
- United States (USA/U.S.): American voter turnout has always been very low compared to other Western countries (around 60% in the 50s-60s and 2000s, around 55% in the '70s-'80s-'90s), but in 2020 for the first time it went up to 66% thanks to the postal vote and COVID-19 epidemy;
- United Kingdom (UK): English voter turnout has always been around 75%, but since the late 90s it has collapsed to 60%, now slowly gaining some point...
- The Netherlands: Until the late '60s, the dutches had a stable 95% voter turnout in every election, but it collapsed in 1971: in the '70s-80s it was above 80%, but from the '90s it is swinging in the 75-80% range;
- Australia: Surprisingly Australia has had a remarkably stable 95% voter turnout for decades until the 2007 elections, but now it is around 90%;
- Canada: Canada had a decent voter turnout until the late '80s, but it rapidly fell to 60-65% in the '90s, gaining again some point in recent years...
- Belgium: Thanks to compulsory voting, Belgium could maintain a very high voter turnout every time, but in the last decade it has fallen slightly below 90%...
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Japan: Surprisingly Japan has never had high voter turnout: until the late 80s it was above 70%, but since then it fell first in the '90s at around 65% and in the last decade at just 55%.