Voting at 16: what changed in the countries that tried it

In September 2014, as Scotland voted on independence, NPR reporter Ari Shapiro visited Drummond Community High School in Edinburgh. Leonie Malone, 16, said some of her 15-year-old friends were jealous that she would get a ballot. "We're allowed to have a baby and move into a house at 16," she said. "I can get married. Why can't we decide what's best for our country?"⁵

She was one of 109,593 voters on the register who were 16 or 17 on polling day, and overall turnout reached 84.6%, the highest for any Scotland-wide poll since universal suffrage.³ In July 2025 the UK government said it would give about 1.6 million 16- and 17-year-olds the vote, joining countries such as Austria, Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador.¹¹ So what happened in the places that went first?

Did teenagers show up?

In Scotland, a survey behind the Electoral Commission's report found that 75% of 16- and 17-year-olds said they voted, compared with 54% of 18- to 24-year-olds. Political scientist John Curtice urged caution: the survey held only 112 people in the youngest group, "not enough to give us a precise estimate of their level of turnout."⁴

Austria offers harder numbers. A 2007 reform set the voting age at 16 for all elections, from parliament to the presidency.¹ University of Vienna researchers estimated that in Vienna's 2010 election, 64.2% of 16- and 17-year-olds voted, against 56.3% of 18- to 20-year-olds. "We conclude that our findings are encouraging for the idea of lowering voting age," they wrote.¹ In a later review of five elections, the youngest voters out-voted 18- to 20-year-olds by between 2.3 and 10 percentage points.²

In the United States, Takoma Park, Maryland, became the first U.S. jurisdiction to lower the voting age, for city elections, in May 2013.⁸ That November, only 59 teenagers voted. Still, that was 16.9% of those eligible, about double the 8.5% rate for adults, and researchers at CIRCLE said the modest results "seem to support the notion that young people are interested."⁷ By 2022, 63% of registered 16- and 17-year-olds in the city voted, compared with 49% of all registered voters.⁸

A habit, or a novelty?

As Tim Male, a former Takoma Park councilmember, put it: "it's habitforming to vote at 16, when they're at home still living in the community they grew up in."⁸

A 2023 University of Edinburgh study of 904 Scots aged 16 to 31 found that people who could first vote at 16 or 17 were more likely to keep voting into their 20s. But it also found limits: the turnout gap between young people from different social backgrounds shrank at 16 and 17, then returned in their 20s, and there was no lasting effect on protests or petitions.⁶ Its lead author, Jan Eichhorn, still concluded: "Allowing 16- and 17-year olds to vote was a good decision taken by the Scottish Parliament."⁶

The Austrian evidence is also mixed. In 2017, 16- and 17-year-olds were less likely than older voters to pick the party closest to their own views, although the authors noted that "in most instances we find that the youngest group does not differ significantly from older first-time voters."²

The case against

Critics say the real question is adulthood. Conservative MP Paul Holmes pointed out that 16-year-olds cannot stand in elections, buy a lottery ticket or buy an alcoholic drink. "A 16-year-old is not a fully independent legally," he said. "The right to vote should match other broader adult responsibilities."¹² In the United States, Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby argued that supporters "need to show why the scientific consensus on teen immaturity is wrong."¹⁴

Ministers answered with a different idea of fairness. Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted that 16-year-olds can work and pay taxes: "I think it's really important that 16- and 17-year-olds have the vote."¹¹ Democracy minister Rushanara Ali called it "a generational step forward in restoring public trust and boosting engagement in UK democracy."¹³

Different rules, different results

In Malta, which had already let 16-year-olds vote in local council elections from 2013, parliament voted 64 to 0 in March 2018 to extend the vote to all elections.⁹ In Brazil, 16- and 17-year-olds "can vote but are not obligated." Before the 2022 election, after celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio urged them to sign up, the electoral authority received a record number of registration requests.¹⁰

If 16-year-olds vote more than 19-year-olds, is that because of maturity, or because they still live at home and sit in civics classes? Should the right to vote match other adult rights, like buying alcohol, or is voting different? And would a habit formed during a once-in-a-generation referendum last in an ordinary local election?

For the strongest arguments on both sides, see the pro and con guide below.