What share of voters turn out in national elections in each country?
At each country's latest parliamentary election in IDEA's file, votes cast were a median 65.31% of registered voters across 199 countries. Among the 193 whose latest was in 2015 or later, it ran from 11.22% in Tunisia (2022) to 99.7% in Vietnam (2026).
% of registered voters who cast a ballot in the parliamentary election
0%25%50%75%100%
Year varies by country (1984–2026) · grey: no figure
Latest figure for each country
Too small or not separate on this map: Gibraltar, Tuvalu. Each colour is one figure per country: the latest election, for the year shown in the ranking and when you point at a country.With "How sure" on, hatching marks countries whose latest figure has a trust score below 60 (Low or Very low).
All countries
Each source's value links to its publisher; point at it for the source and year. A value in brackets is shown but doesn't count, and pointing at it says why. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
About this data
Every source on this page (2)
Who is behind the sources
- 100% International body
Each publisher, its funding and its own description
- International IDEA · International bodyFunding: Core contributions from its Member States plus restricted project funding from donors; its total funding in 2025 was EUR 45,145,000. sourceIn its own words: “International IDEA is an intergovernmental organization that supports democracy worldwide.” source, retrieved 2026-11-02
- Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) · International bodyFunding: Financed primarily by its member parliaments out of public funds. sourceIn its own words: “The IPU is the global organization of national parliaments. We promote democratic governance, institutions and values…” source, retrieved 2026-11-02
- IDEA Voter Turnout DatabaseUsed for 199 countries; counts toward 199. Years 1984 to 2026. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Open the publisher's page
- IPU Parline elections dataUsed for 121 countries; counts toward 9. Years 2003 to 2026. Retrieved 2026-11-02.Not counted where: it republishes IDEA.Data: one of 121 files (API; each row's sources list its own)
Why the numbers differ (4)
- IDEA's codebook names national electoral bodies as its primary sources and IPU's records cite them too, so for one election IPU is shown as a copy of IDEA and not counted, whether or not the figures match. A counted IPU line means an election only IPU has a figure for. For 378 elections in both, 216 show the same figures, 106 differ by under a point and 56 by a point or more; each row's note gives both counts for its latest election. At the latest election the gap is five points or more in: Azerbaijan, Iraq, Luxembourg, Mexico, Namibia, Niger, South Africa. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- The denominator is the roll, and rolls differ. IDEA's codebook says registration is voluntary or often inaccurate in many countries, and that a roll can still hold people who have died or left. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Compulsory voting affects comparison. Where IDEA's file marks the latest election as compulsory the median is 75.08% across 26 countries, against 63.53% across 173 where it does not. This is a plain split, with no adjustment for anything else. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Some parliamentary rows match the presidential row for the same year: 104 rows in IDEA's file show the identical turnout on both sheets. The United States has 3: 2016, 2020, 2024. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
Common mistakes (3)
- Reading this as a share of all adults. Turnout of the voting-age population uses an estimate of people of voting age as the base, and IDEA's codebook warns it can differ greatly from registered voters. It is a different number and is kept off this page. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Taking high turnout as a statement about whether an election was free or fair. This number counts ballots and says nothing about that.
- Comparing a presidential election's turnout with these figures. Presidential elections are a separate sheet in IDEA's file and are not included here. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
Context (4)
- Each IDEA row was checked against IPU's list of lower-house elections. Of 1891 rows that overlap with that list, 16 have no match and are kept, flagged on their line. The check is limited: a match shows only that IPU lists a lower-house election at that date or year, not that IDEA's figure belongs to it. 1133 of the rows carry only a year, so rounds crossing a year cannot be seen there. 425 rows fall outside the list, for places IPU does not cover or years before its first record for the country. IPU's list has its own gaps, so no match does not prove a row is wrong. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- IDEA's inclusion criteria require a degree of competitiveness: one-party states such as North Korea, China and the former Soviet Union are excluded, and within the grey area IDEA says it has erred on the side of inclusion. A row here is not IDEA's or RealStats' view that an election was free or contested. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- IDEA's table of countries with compulsory-voting laws, with the sanctions and whether each is enforced. IDEA notes that a law may be symbolic or strictly applied, so a yes-or-no count is a simplification. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
- IDEA's database page, which also explains the difference between registered voters and voting-age population. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
Sources considered and not used (6)
- IPU Parline website and compare tool (data.ipu.org): The site and ipu.org answered scripted requests with a Cloudflare block, so IPU's field definitions and terms page were not read and the block was not worked around. The figures come from IPU's public API host, which answered without a key. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- IDEA's Israel row for 2001: IDEA's Parliamentary sheet shows 62.29%, but IPU's list has no Knesset election between its records for 17 May 1999 and 28 January 2003. Left out of this number and the series. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- IDEA's turnout of voting-age population: Same file, different base: an estimate of people of voting age, drawn from population data rather than from election bodies. Not the number defined here. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- IDEA's Presidential and EU Parliament sheets: Same file, different elections. This number covers national parliamentary elections only. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- Historic entities in IDEA's file: Left out of a table of current countries: Yugoslavia, SFR (1943-1992) (rows end 1992), Yugoslavia, FR/Union of Serbia and Montenegro (rows end 2003), Netherlands Antilles (rows end 2010). (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
- National election commissions, one by one: IDEA's codebook and IPU's source fields both point back to them. They were not added as lines country by country, which is why most rows rest on one compilation with no separate count beside it. (source, retrieved 2026-11-02)
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- Cite as: RealStats, “What share of voters turn out in national elections in each country?”, updated 2026-11-02, with the original sources listed on the page. Scores use formula version 1.0.
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