Increase in Scottish Electorate

17th April 2015

A National Statistics Publication for Scotland.

The number of people registered to vote in elections in Scotland continues to rise, according to figures published by National Records of Scotland.

The registered electorates for local councils, the Scottish Parliament, the UK Parliament and the European Parliament have all seen increases. With the exception of 2009, Scottish electorates have risen year on year since 2003, with an additional peak of nearly 4.29 million for the Independence Referendum, which also included 16 and 17 year old voters.

On 2nd March, 2015:
4.13 million people were registered to vote in the local government and Scottish Parliament elections - an increase of 11,432 (0.3 per cent) compared to March 10, 2014, and is at the highest level ever recorded.
4.04 million people were registered to vote in UK Parliament elections - an increase of 8,207 (0.2 per cent)
The number of EU citizens registered to vote in local government and Scottish Parliament elections dropped by 5,434 to 88,688 (5.8% per cent). This is likely to underestimate the total number of EU citizens resident in Scotland, since some may not register to vote.

The deadline for registrations to vote in the UK General Election is 20th April 2015.

The statistical information is available online at http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/ or directly from: http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/electoral-statistics.

Equivalent statistics for the whole of the UK were published today by the Office for National Statistics.

The electoral register is a list of all people who are registered to vote in elections and referendums. The creation and maintenance of the electoral register is the responsibility of local electoral registration offices. There are 15 such offices in Scotland and each maintains the electoral register for its own area. This is generally done by means of an annual canvass and a process of rolling registration. These statistics are derived using the data supplied by the 15 Electoral Registration Officers using the full register published on March 2, 2015.

These statistics are also used by government to inform electoral policy, in the work of the Boundary Commission for Scotland for constituency design, and by political parties and members of the UK and the Scottish Parliament, local government, academics and members of the public with an interest in the political process.

A progress report on the implementation of Individual electoral registration entitled "Analysis of the revised electoral registers in Scotland" was published by the Electoral Commission on 2nd April 2015: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/184302/Analysis-of-the-revised-electoral-registers-in-Scotland.pdf