New OECD data out today reveals the gap in voting rates between 16-35 year olds and those aged 55 or over is wider in Britain than elsewhere, and is three times the OECD average gap.
New OECD data out today reveals the gap in voting rates between 16-35 year olds and those aged 55 or over is wider in Britain than in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States – and is three times the OECD average gap.
The “Society at a Glance 2011 – OECD Social Indicators” report also shows:
• Women in Britain spend two hours more per day doing unpaid work than men;
• Income inequality in the UK is the seventh highest in the OECD, and has been increasing at more than the OECD average rate.
• Poverty rates are little more than OECD averages, 11.3% compared to an OECD average of 11.1% in 2007;
• 57% of British people have volunteered time, given money, or helped a stranger in the previous month – the fifth highest in the OECD, whose average is 39%.
Finally, Mexicans work longer days than anyone else in OECD countries – devoting 10 hours to paid and unpaid work – and also do the most housework, at more than three hours per day.
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17 Responses to “Gap in voting rates between young and old widest in Britain”
Nick
Is that our young people are disproportionately unlikely to vote, or that our older people are disportionately likely to vote, or a bit of a both?
ChrisGilmore
And how is allowing only over 45s in politics to solve this? RT @leftfootfwd: Age voting rates gap widest in Britain: http://bit.ly/gq2F8i
Left Outside
After a quick look at the data, our young are THE least likely to vote and our old are slightly less likely to vote than OECD average.
Northern worker
I’ve got four children ranging from 27 to 37. They don’t bother voting because they don’t think it’ll make any difference – and I quote. In addition, the two who have been to university (28 and 35) strongly believe that the three main parties are corrupt, completely divorced from reality and make no difference because unelected officials make all our laws in secret in Brussels. My wife and I always vote and always have, and we have tried very hard to convince them that the only way to make a difference is to vote. But it’s hard not to see their point.
Dave Citizen
My kids will be coming up to vote in a few years and I really worry whether they will want to vote and, if they do, whether it will have any effect. Our voting system is hardly designed to inspire them, unless they happen to want the same as the more senior voting majority. Voting for ‘minority’ parties, for example the Greens, is a complete waste of time in virtually every part of the country under first-past-the-post.
Whether it’s our voting system, tuition fees, house prices, or Britain’s disgraceful position of being the 20th most unequal European country out of the 21 in the OECD, most of our young people are being sold badly short. On the other hand, if you like the status quo, the current set up works very well to keep it!