2024 general election: Turnout

Georgina Sturge

Overall turnout and comparison over time

Turnout at the 2024 general election was 59.7%, which was the lowest at a general election since 2001. Turnout was 7.6 percentage points lower than in 2019.This represented the largest drop in turnout between elections since between 1997 and 2001.

The chart below shows turnout at general elections since 1918, during which time it has varied between 57.2% (1918) and 83.5% (1950). Since the drop in 2001, turnout has never fully returned to the levels between the 1922 and 1997.

Regional turnout

Turnout differed widely across the UK at the 2024 general election, with the highest turnout (64.9%) in the South West of England and the lowest turnout (55.7%) in Yorkshire and the Humber. Turnout was lower in all parts of the UK compared with the notional results for the same boundaries in 2019.

Constituency boundaries changed between 2019 and 2024, so election specialists estimated what turnout would have been in 2019 using the new boundaries (these are referred to as the ‘notional’ results for 2019). This allowed them to meaningfully compare constituency-level turnout over time.

The changes in turnout compared with 2019 differed by region, from a fall of 4.5 percentage points in Northern Ireland to a fall of 10.3 percentage points in Wales. The chart below illustrates the changes in turnout by region at the 2024 general election compared with the 2019 general election.

Constituency turnout

The highest constituency-level turnout was in Harpenden and Berkhamsted (75.2%) in the East of England, which was a Liberal Democrat gain from the Conservative Party. Nine out of the 10 seats with the highest turnout changed hands, and seven of these were Liberal Democrat gains from the Conservatives, largely in the South East and South West. Twelve of the 20 seats with the highest turnout were Liberal Democrat gains.

The lowest turnout was 40.0% in Manchester Rusholme, which was the lowest constituency turnout recorded at a general election since South Staffordshire in 2005 (37.2%). Seventeen of the 20 constituencies with the lowest turnout were seats held by Labour and three quarters of these seats were in the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber or the West Midlands.

The table below shows the 20 highest and 20lowest turnouts by constituency.


Turnout by constituency: The twenty highest and lowest
Rank	Constituency	Country/region	Winner/result	Second party	Turnout
Highest
1	Harpenden and Berkhamsted	East of England	LD gain from Con	Con	75.2%
2	Rushcliffe	East Midlands	Lab gain from Con	Con	72.9%
3	Winchester	South East	LD gain from Con	Con	72.9%
4	Esher and Walton	South East	LD gain from Con	Con	72.8%
5	Chesham and Amersham	South East	LD gain from Con	Con	72.7%
6	South Cotswolds	South West	LD gain from Con	Con	72.7%
7	North Somerset	South West	Lab gain from Con	Con	72.2%
8	North East Hampshire	South East	LD gain from Con	Con	72.2%
9	Godalming and Ash	South East	Con hold	LD	72.1%
10	Henley and Thame	South East	LD gain from Con	Con	72.1%
11	Wimbledon	London	LD gain from Con	Con	72.0%
12	Wokingham	South East	LD gain from Con	Con	71.9%
13	Mid Dunbartonshire	Scotland	LD gain from SNP	SNP	71.7%
14	Twickenham	London	LD hold	Con	71.5%
15	Mid Buckinghamshire	South East	Con hold	LD	71.3%
16	Epsom and Ewell	South East	LD gain from Con	Con	71.3%
17	Kenilworth and Southam	West Midlands	Con hold	Lab	71.2%
18	South Cambridgeshire	East of England	LD gain from Con	Con	71.0%
19	St Albans	East of England	LD hold	Con	71.0%
20	Stroud	South West	Lab gain from Con	Con	70.9%
Lowest
631	Barnsley South	Yorkshire and The Humber	Lab hold	RUK	46.2%
632	West Ham and Beckton	London	Lab hold	NIP	46.0%
633	Middlesbrough and Thornaby East	North East	Lab hold	RUK	45.8%
634	Barking	London	Lab hold	RUK	45.7%
635	Blackpool South	North West	Lab gain from Con	RUK	45.4%
636	Chorley	North West	Spk hold	Green	45.4%
637	Liverpool Riverside	North West	Lab hold	Green	45.4%
638	Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough	Yorkshire and The Humber	Lab hold	Green	44.9%
639	Leeds Central and Headingley	Yorkshire and The Humber	Lab hold	Green	44.8%
640	Doncaster North	Yorkshire and The Humber	Lab hold	Con	44.4%
641	Birmingham Erdington	West Midlands	Lab hold	RUK	44.1%
642	Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North	West Midlands	Lab hold	WPB	43.9%
643	Birmingham Ladywood	West Midlands	Lab hold	Ind	43.7%
644	Blackley and Middleton South	North West	Lab hold	RUK	43.3%
645	Wolverhampton South East	West Midlands	Lab hold	RUK	43.1%
646	Tipton and Wednesbury	West Midlands	Lab gain from Con	Con	43.0%
647	Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney	Wales	Lab hold	PC	42.7%
648	Kingston upon Hull East	Yorkshire and The Humber	Lab hold	RUK	42.2%
649	Leeds South	Yorkshire and The Humber	Lab hold	Green	41.7%
650	Manchester Rusholme	North West	Lab hold	Green	40.0%

All but three constituencies were estimated to have experienced a decrease in turnout compared with the notional 2019 general election results using the new constituency boundaries. In all of the three seats where turnout was higher in 2024 than the notional 2019 figure – Lewisham West and East Dulwich, St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, and Chesham and Amersham – the rise was less than 1 percentage point.

The largest decline in turnout compared with 2019 was a fall of 18.8 percentage points in East Ham. The six largest declines in turnout were all in London seats.

Results by party

Average turnout differed by winning party and by whether a seat changed hands or was held by the same party which had won in 2019.

Seats won by the Green Party had the highest average turnout (68.9%), compared with those won by other parties. The second highest average turnout was in seats won or held by the Liberal Democrats (67.5%) and most of these (64 out of 72 seats) were gains. Average turnout in constituencies won by the Conservatives was 7.2 percentage points higher than in those won by Labour.

Aside from the seat which elected the Speaker, where turnout was 45.4%, the lowest average turnout by winner was in the one seat won by Traditional Unionist Voice (55.1%), North Antrim, which was a gain from the Democratic Unionist Party.

The charts below show seats grouped by turnout, in 1% increments, and coloured according to the winning party. Only seats won by Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats are identified with their party colours, with all others grouped by a single colour.

At the lower end of the turnout distribution, almost all seats were won by Labour and were mainly seats held rather than gained. The lowest turnout in a seat won by the Conservatives was 54.8%, nearly 15 percentage points higher than the lowest turnout in a seat won by Labour.

At the higher end, seats were mainly won by the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats. Liberal Democrat wins only occurred in seats where the turnout was 60% or higher, and as the chart on the right shows, most seats with the highest turnouts (72% or higher) were Liberal Democrat wins.

About the author: Georgina Sturge is a senior researcher in the Social and General Statistics section of the Commons Library.