Italy: voters turnout of national elections on March 4, 2018, by section

The parliamentary election, during which Italian citizens choose the new members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, is held in Italy every five years. The most recent general election took place on March 4, 2018 and coincided with the regional election in Lombardy and Lazio. The highest share of citizens gave their vote for the new members of the Italian Senate (Camera del Senato), which registered a voter turnout of 72.99 percent, whereas the representatives of the Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) were chosen by 72.93 percent of the voting eligible population. The most numerous group of Italians who abstained from voting in these elections were the youngest citizens.

Fewer and fewer Italians to check the box

The voter turnout in the Italian general election has been constantly declining over the years. If compared with the voter participation registered at the beginning of the 90s, the share of citizens choosing their government in the recent election was roughly 14 percent lower for both parliament houses.

Positive trends in other European countries

Opposite trends can be observed in other European countries. Germany, affected by a constant decrease in the voter turnout since 1998, during the last general election in 2017 registered a roughly five-percent increase in comparison with the values from 2013. A positive tendency was recorded also in Norway, where the voter participation has been steadily growing since 2001.