Latest polling figures from the Children’s Commissioner in England suggest 16 year-olds don’t feel ready to vote.
From the next General Election, the Government intends to allow 16 and 17-year-olds in England to vote. It wants to “[engage] voters early, when they are young, and [allow] them to have a say in shaping their future…”
However, many young people don’t feel ready. The Children’s Commissioner’s findings reveal feelings of uncertainty, anxiety and a sense that young people are not fully connected to politics or confident that having their say is important.
What the polling shows
The fundamental message is that teenagers do not yet know how they would participate or which way they would vote in a general election. The Commissioner says that 28 per cent of 13 to 17-year-olds do not know which political party they would vote for, 20 per cent do not know whether they would vote at all, and 11 per cent say they would not vote in the next general election.
By 2029, an estimated four million more young people could be eligible to vote under the Government’s plans to lower the voting age to 16. The Commissioner’s concern is that this change is arriving at a time when many children already feel disconnected from democratic life.
Worries beyond politics
The polling also shows that voting uncertainty adds to young people’s wider anxiety about the future. Nine in ten young people say they worry about what lies ahead, with major concerns including getting a good job, having enough money, housing, doing well in school or college, and war and conflict.
For older children, worries about employment and money increase sharply, with two thirds concerned about finding a good job and 60 per cent about their future finances.
What the Commissioner wants
Dame Rachel de Souza argues that children need better preparation for voting in elections. She is calling for lessons in citizenship and democracy so young people can learn through discussion and debate and have the right tools ready for when the voting age is lowered.
She also urges political parties to do more to engage younger voters, including making their case to children, consulting them, embedding their views and producing children’s versions of manifestos. Her broader point is that children should not be treated as an afterthought in public debates, especially when the decisions made now will shape how a generation engages with democracy.
Listening to young people
The Commissioner is launching The Big Future as her final large-scale national survey and wants to hear directly from a million children across England about childhood today and what needs to improve.
Her intention is to find out how to help young people make the shift and move from uncertainty to confidence in where they place their vote – and from being talked about to being listened to.
References
- Morning after local elections, Children’s Commissioner’s new polling shows teenagers uncertain about voting in the next general election and worried about the future, as she launched major national survey. Available at: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/statement/new-polling-shows-teenagers-uncertain-about-voting/ (Accessed 11 May 2026)
- Votes at 16. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/representation-of-the-people-bill-policy-summaries/votes-at-16 (Accessed 11 May 2026)
- The Big Future. Available at: https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/the-big-future/ (Accessed 11 May 2026)
