New Poll Reveals Young Voters Feel Unprepared for Upcoming UK Elections
As the UK prepares to extend voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds nationwide, new research from the John Smith Centre highlights a striking gap in political readiness among this group. The poll of 500 young people reveals widespread feelings of confusion and disengagement, with many citing a lack of education and understanding as key barriers to participation. While a majority express support for democracy and a willingness to vote, the findings underscore the urgent need for stronger citizenship education and clearer communication from political leaders to ensure these new voters feel confident and informed.
- Q1 – In your opinion, what makes it hard for people your age to get involved in politics?
- Q2 – What would make you more likely to get involved in politics or civic life?
- Q3 – If you had to choose one word to describe what you think about politics in the UK today, what would it be?
- Q4 – "The government in the UK is biased against young people and in favour of older people."
- Q5 – "Democracy may have problems, but it is better than any other form of government (e.g. dictatorship, military rule, monarchy, one-party rule)."
- Q6 – The government has announced that all 16- and 17-year-olds will soon have the right to vote in all UK elections. Do you think this is a good idea?
- Q7 – Why do you think 16-17 year-olds should be allowed to vote?
- Q8 – Why do you think 16-17 year-olds shouldn't be allowed to vote?
- Q9 – How likely is it that you would vote?
- Q10 – “Once 16 and 17 year olds have the vote, they have a duty to make use of it?
- Q11 – Why won’t you use your vote?
- Q12 – In your experience, has school prepared you well to understand politics and voting?
- Q13 – To get reliable information, I trust social media sites more than traditional media.
Q1 – In your opinion, what makes it hard for people your age to get involved in politics?
The top answer for why 16-17 -year-olds find it hard to get involved in politics is ‘Politicians don’t listen to young people’ with 42%. The three following reasons are all related to a lack of understanding: 34% – ‘I don’t understand how it works’, 31% – ‘It’s too complicated or boring’, and 28% ‘I don’t know where to start.’ Just over a quarter (26%) also note that they don’t trust politicians.
Young men and women broadly agree on this ordering, but a few differences jump out. Young women appear to find politics significantly more overwhelming than young men (30% to 18%). On the other hand, young men feel more that they’re too busy and have other priorities (25% to 12%).
Intriguingly, those young people who state they are likely to vote at 16-17 agree more to the following obstacles to getting involved in politics than those who are unlikely to vote:
- ‘Politicians don’t listen to young people’ (48% vs 35%)
– ‘I don’t see anyone in politics who is like me’ (22% vs 9%)
In contrast, those who are unlikely to vote agree more to the following challenges:
- ‘I don’t understand how it works’ (45% vs 30%)
- ‘It’s too complicate d or boring’ (41% vs 29%)
Evidently, those who feel more strongly that they lack knowledge of how politics works or feel overwhelmed by it are less likely to vote. In contrast, those who are more unhappy with the makeup or type of politician they see are more likely to vote. The outlier in the latter group is the option ‘I don’t know where to start’, which might be explained by voting being a more straightforward way of getting involved in politics.
Q2 – What would make you more likely to get involved in politics or civic life?
Mirroring the barriers to involvement young people have identified in Question 1, Question 2 asks what would make them more likely to get involved. In accordance with question 1, 40% want to feel that their voice is taken seriously. 34% want better education about politics in school and politicians to be more honest and relatable, respectively.
Young men and women differ considerably in a few of their answers. Where 30% of women want more young people in leadership roles, only 18% of men choose this option. Similar ly, 40% of young women ‘would like to see better political education in schools; only 30% of men do so too. This correlates to Question 1 where young women state higher levels of confusion and overwhelm when it comes to politics. On the other hand, 26% of young men would like to see more people like themselves involved in politics. Young women only chose this 17% of the time.
Q3 – If you had to choose one word to describe what you think about politics in the UK today, what would it be?
We asked young people to describe their impression of UK politics with one word. 25% answered with terms adhering to confusion, such as ‘confusing’ and ‘complicated ’. Terms relating to negativity and chaos were given 17% of the time, respectively, including ‘messy’, ‘chaotic’ and ‘bad’. Other words that were used can be summarised as corruption (14%), boredom (9%), and division (4%).
In accordance with the above where young women are more likely to state that politics is confusing and overwhelming, 33% name terms of confusion compared to only 17% of men.
Q4 – "The government in the UK is biased against young people and in favour of older people."
The majority of 16-17-year-olds feel that the UK government is biased against young people and in favour of older people. 18% strongly agree and 48% agree with this statement. 17% disagree or don’t know, respectively.
The UK Youth Poll 2025, polling 16-29-year-olds, found a more balanced picture. Here, 50% disagreed that young people are treated fairly and 43% agreed. It is possible that the younger people are, the less they feel treated fairly by those in power.
Young men and women both agree fairly similarly with this statement – men 70% and women 64% .
Q5 – "Democracy may have problems, but it is better than any other form of government (e.g. dictatorship, military rule, monarchy, one-party rule)."
The majority of young people believe that democracy is a better form of government than others, despite the problems it may have. 27% agree strongly and 37% agree. Only 11% disagree. 25% are not sure.
Intriguingly, young men agree more strongly than young women. 33% agree strongly and 36% agree, compared to women’s 21% of strong agreement and 39% of agreement. ‘Don’t know’ answers are considerable and significant: young men don’t know 19% of the time, young women 31%. The reasons for this might be various. Maybe they don’t know what the other forms of government might look like or what they mean. Maybe discontentment with democracy is so high that the willingness to rule out other forms of government is low.
When considering likelihood to vote, considerable discrepancies can be found as well. 74% of those who would be likely to vote at 16-17 also agree that the democracy is a better form of government. For those who are unlikely to vote, only 56% agree with the statement.
Similarly, of those who agree that they trust social media more than traditional media, 74% are on the side of democracy. Of those who do not trust social media more than traditional media only 62% think democracy is the better form of government despite its problems.
Worthy of note is also the relationship between voter intention and the preference of democracy. Due to the amount of parties covered, responding numbers are too small to make overall claims. However, what can be seen from the numbers is that those opting for Reform UK are no less likely to favour democracy than those opting for the other mainstream parties.
Q6 – The government has announced that all 16- and 17-year-olds will soon have the right to vote in all UK elections. Do you think this is a good idea?
Almost half of 16-17-year-olds think it’s a good idea for them to get the right to vote in all UK elections: 48%. In contrast, 32% do not think it’s a good idea. 20% don’t know.
Young men appear to agree more: 54% of them think it’s a good idea, compared to 41% of women. In fact, 37% of young women do not think it’s a good idea, almost balancing out the ir 41% agreement. Men only disagree with 28%. ‘Don’t know ’ figures are comparably high with 18% (men) and 22% (women) respectively.
Similarly, of those who trust social media over traditional media, 57% also think votes at 16 is good idea. Of those who do not trust social media more than traditional media, only 40% think voting from 16 is a good idea.
Q7 – Why do you think 16-17 year-olds should be allowed to vote?
Of those 48% who agreed in Question 6 that it’s a good idea for 16-17-year-olds to have the vote, the most named reasoning is that young people offer unique perspectives (29%). 28% allude to equal rights , 22% remark on the impact on the future current voting has, 13% highlight representation, 5% assert that 16-17-year-olds are mature enough and 3% allude to issues of fairness.
Overall, young men and women provide similar answers. However, there are marked differences when it comes to stating unique perspectives and equal rights. 38% of young women point to unique perspectives compared to 24% of young men. Similarly, young men are much more likely to talk about equal rights (36%) than young women (19%).
Some example answers include:
“Because they r mature enough and it is their future that is affected by a lot if decisions”
“It gives an equal opinion on everything, so it’s not just the opinions of older people and what they want.”
“We’re mature enough”
“In this generation we will be living in it and we may also have more thinking than others. E.g we may have a better understanding through social media’s and news”
Q8 – Why do you think 16-17 year-olds shouldn't be allowed to vote?
When it comes to reasons why respondents do not believe their age group should be allowed to vote (32% of overall respondents), the top two named reasons are 35% – not engaged with politics, and 33% – immaturity. Other reasons include that they are easily influenced (17%), they lack life experience (7%) and they lack policy knowledge (5%).
There are no major differences between genders.
Some example answers include:
“There is not enough education about the pros and cons of each party for young people to make a rational decision. It would be too biased and uninformed”
“As a 16 year old I am not educated on politics enough, however teachers may be biased in their teachings due to their opinions”
“They are not mature enough”
“Because they haven’t learned enough about politics to get involved I personally think you should be at least 21 to vote to be honest with you”
Q9 – How likely is it that you would vote?
A clear majority say they would likely vote in a general election being held in the next few weeks: 65% said it was either somewhat or very likely they would do so, as against only 27% who said it was somewhat or very unlikely.
Unsurprisingly, voting enthusiasm was particularly marked among those young people who think votes at 16 is a good idea, 83% of whom said they would be likely to vote compared to 51% who do not think it is a good idea.
Q10 – “Once 16 and 17 year olds have the vote, they have a duty to make use of it?"
60% said they agreed that 16-17-year-olds had a duty to use their vote, having been given the chance to do so. Only 24% disagreed with the statement.
This view was particularly held among young people who think votes at 16 is a good idea (75%) and among those who say they are likely to vote (75%). It was also strongly held by those who say they would vote Labour: 80% of Labour supporters said they thought 16-17-year-olds had a duty to vote.
Q11 – Why won’t you use your vote?
The following questions were asked only of those young people who said they were unlikely to vote. Respondents were given four statements and asked to say whether they agreed or disagreed.
The statement that was supported the most was ‘because I don’t know enough about politics’: 77% agreed this was a reason for being unlikely to vote, compared to 20% who disagreed.
The statement ‘because I don’t care’ was supported by 57% of young people and opposed by 39%.
The statement ‘because I don’t think it will make a difference’ found agreement from 53% and disagreement from 41%.
The statement ‘because all politicians are the same’ found agreement from 42% and disagreement from 44%.
Q12 – In your experience, has school prepared you well to understand politics and voting?
64% of respondents said no, while only 21% said yes, with 15% saying they weren’t sure. In summary, only one in five 16-17-year-olds agree school has prepared them well to understand politics and voting. 16-17-year-old men were more likely to say schools prepared them – 26% to 17% for women. Those who said they were unlikely to vote were also more negative about school preparation: only 14% said schools had prepared them sufficiently.
Q13 – "To get reliable information, I trust social media sites more than traditional media."
Opinion was divided with marginally more supporting social media as a source of reliable information – 48% – to traditional media – 41%.
Of those deeming votes at 16 a bad idea, 56% do not trust social media more as a reliable source; 39% agree. The numbers reverse for those who find the incoming voting changes positive: only 34% do not prefer social media over traditional media as reliable source of information; 58% do.
Of those respondents who agree that democracy is a better form of government than others, 56% trust social media over traditional media (40% do not). Contrastingly, of those who do not agree with democracy being the best form of government, 57% also do not trust social media over traditional media; 33% do.
Q14 – Imagine there was a general election tomorrow, which party would you vote for, or would you not vote?
The most common response was ‘don’t know’ with 31% of responses. Next came those who said they would not vote, at 19%. So, half of 16-17-year-olds either don’t know how to use their new vote or won’t use it.
Labour was the most popular party of the half who identified a preference (16%), with Reform UK second (11%), the Greens third (9%) and the Conservatives and LibDems on 4% each. Women were more likely to say ‘don’t know’ than men, 34% to 27%. Males were far more likely than females to say they would support Reform UK, 17% to 4%, as shown in the UK Youth Poll.
Those who oppose extending the vote to 16- 17-year-olds were far more likely to say they wouldn’t vote than those who supported it: 32% to 10%.
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For inquiries about this polling, please contact our Research and Engagement Manager, Dr Elisabeth Loose.
