Willing but Wary: Adolescents, Democracy and Votes at 16

The IP-PAD's UK Adolescent & Democracy Study

As the UK prepares to welcome its youngest citizens ever in the electoral process, we look at what 12- to 17-year-olds think about their political engagement, their future and UK's Democracy.

Summary

In 2029, the UK is due to undergo the most significant electoral change in eighty years: when 16- and 17-year-olds gain the right to vote. We surveyed nearly a thousand adolescents (12-17 years old) across the UK on their political attitudes and emotions towards democracy to gain an insight into how this change may play out. Overall, young people are very willing to politically participate, especially when it comes to voting. However, they also exhibit significant anxiety about the future, which may depress their faith and trust in political institutions and political efficacy. Young people living in more rural, and often lower socieconomic, areas bare the brunt of these issues, expressing higher anxiety and lower political trust, which in turn may explain their lower political willingness to engage.

The picture that emerges from our findings is clear: adolescents in the UK are willing to engage in democracy, but they are doing so from a position of anxiety, low trust, and limited faith in the responsiveness of political institutions.

Key Findings

1. Willingness to politically engage is high, especially the desire to vote.

2. Many young people are anxious about the future .

3. Faith in one’s own ability to make a political impact (internal political efficacy) is higher than that in the responsiveness of the government (external political efficacy), but both are low.

4. There is low trust in political institutions, especially political parties.

5. Satisfaction with democracy is similar to levels expressed by adults.

6. Young people who are more anxious about the future also showed lower political engagement: they reported lower voting intentions, lower willingness to participate in politics and lower trust in political parties.

7. A majority of UK adults fear that lowering the voting age to 16 could have an overall negative impact on UK democracy by increasing polarisation, populism, instability, and extremism

1.Willing to Politically Engage

We find that there is overall willingness to politically engage across the ages of 12-17 through three items. First, nearly three quarters of respondents said they would vote if given the opportunity (72.3%). Whilst this only measured intention, rather than actual behaviour, it is far above the most recent voter turnout in the 2024 general election (59.7%). Next, the majority of participants expressed that they were interested in politics (57.1%).  When asked if they would be willing to politically participate across five different forms of participation, the majority once again expressed willingness (58.4%). However, this differed according to the mode of participation, and participants preferred online over in-person participation. Despite this, willingness to participate in offline and organised ways (e.g., working in a political party or action group) were still higher here than what has been observed among young adults (16-29 year olds). Together, these measures suggest that young people are politically engaged to a high level and that enfranchising 16–17-year-olds with the vote could have a marked effect on the democratic process. Girls and boys showed the same level of willingness to politically engage. Those living in urban areas were associated with higher political engagement across all measures.

2.Yet Anxious about the Future

Despite overall willingness to engage, the majority of young people also exhibited significant anxiety about the future (55%). This was in response to being asked about anxiety across five different items. In particular, young people expressed the most anxiety about potential changes in the current economic and political situation threatening their future. This is in contrast to young adults who express overall optimism regarding their futures (only 20% express pessimism). Girls were slightly more anxious about the future, though the difference to boys was only small. Meanwhile, a much stronger difference was observed between young people living in urban areas and those living in rural areas, with those in rural areas showing higher levels of anxiety about the future.

3.Political Efficacy

Adolescents express a lack of faith in British democratic institutions as shown by responses to questions surrounding political efficacy. Internal political efficacy refers to one’s belief that they can participate in and have an impact on political processes, while external political efficacy concerns one’s belief in how responsive the government is to the will of the people. Respondents exhibited low levels of both internal and external efficacy. 41.5% of participants reported low internal political efficacy, compared to only 39.9% reported believing they can have an impact on politics. This is much lower than internal political efficacy levels reported by young adults. External political efficacy was even lower, with a majority of 61.6% young people reporting low efficacy compared to 22.7% reporting high external efficacy. Together, these findings suggest that young people have higher faith in their ability to make a political impact than in the fact that the political system in the UK will actually allow them to have an influence, although both are low. Levels of efficacy were similar across girls and boys and rural and urban regions.

4.Distrust of Political Parties

Overall, participants expressed trust in a range of political institutions (60.4%). However, the level of trust is not consistent by institution and varies greatly. Respondents showed more trust towards institutions less subject to democratic processes (the Courts of Justice and the Police) rather than those relevant to electoral decisions (such as the UK government). Distrust for political parties is particularly pronounced, ranking the lowest out of all included institutions. However, this is still much higher than trust for political parties as reported by adults (around 15%). The Media also garnered low levels of trust. These findings are consistent with those of young people expressing low levels of external political efficacy and suggest that young people lack faith in the UK’s democratic institutions.

5. Dissatisfied with Democracy 

46.9% of young people express satisfaction with democracy, while 30.8% say they are outright unsatisfied. These results are very similar to those regarding adult satisfaction with democracy in the UK (47% satisfied, 28% unsatisfied). Alongside moderate to low levels of internal political efficacy, these findings suggest that young people feel neither fulfilled nor empowered by current British democracy. . (Dis-)Satisfaction with democracy was similar across gender. However, young people living in urban areas expressed higher satisfaction with democracy compared to young people from rural areas. Importantly, increasing youth representation through expanding the right to vote to younger citizens could be one solution to counteract feelings of dissatisfaction and disengegament, and future research should investigate such effects.

Integrating the findings

Some of our observations are inter-related. Future anxiety and political trust are not normally distributed across the country. We observe that respondents in urban areas were more associated with lower future anxiety and higher political trust, than those in smaller towns and villages. This suggests that the environment a child grows up in, whether it is rural countryside or urban sprawl, affects features key to their political engagement. Reinforcing this, there is a positive correlation between living in more urban areas and being satisfied with democracy.

Young people who are more anxious about the future also showed lower political engagement: they reported lower voting intentions, lower willingness to participate in politics and lower trust in political parties. Additionally, increased trust in political institutions is correlated with higher political engagement. Furthermore, more anxious young people were also less satisfied with democracy in the UK. This suggests that higher future anxiety and lacking trust in British democracy and its institutions may stifle young people’s engagement in politics if enfranchised with the vote. To increase young people's support of democracy, UK political parties s might need to make more efforts to address the concerns of young people, and give them the sense that they can actively contribute to a better future.

The adult view on Vote at 16

Alongside this survey, we asked a sample of adults (n = 801) in the UK about what they thought the impact of expanding the vote to 16 and 17 year olds would be on democracy. Overall, they thought this electoral change would be negative, 51% saying that it would worsen democracy, compared to only 26% who thought it would improve democracy. Our questions went into more detail, asking them about the predicted impact this change would have on several items part of or adjacent to democracy. Many acknowledged that this would expand those included within the democratic process and conversation: 48% and 46% said that political representation for different social groups and diverse perspectives would improve respectively; and 46% also thought that political participation would be better off. However, 41% thought that populism and polarisation would worsen, whilst 36% thought that stability and even extremism would worsen. While adults believe that enfranchising some young people with the right to vote would expand the bounds of the political and democratic conversation, they believe that this would ultimately be worse off for democracy, threatening overall stability and exacerbating elements which may jeopardise this system of government.

Conclusion

The picture that emerges from our findings is clear: adolescents in the UK are willing to engage in democracy, but they are doing so from a position of anxiety, low trust, and limited faith in the responsiveness of political institutions. Many say they would vote, are interested in politics, and want to participate, yet future anxiety is associated with lower voting intentions, lower broader political engagement, lower trust in political parties, and lower satisfaction with democracy. In this sense, the challenge is not just to persuade young people to care about democracy, but to ensure that democracy proves worthy of their commitment.

The adult findings sharpen this point. While many adults recognise that lowering the voting age to 16 could broaden representation, participation, and the range of perspectives in public life, a majority still fear that it could worsen democracy by increasing polarisation, populism, instability, and extremism. That tension matters. It suggests that the enlargement of the franchise will not by itself secure democratic renewal; it must be accompanied by visible efforts to strengthen trust, inclusion, and democratic resilience. If young people are willing but anxious and distrustful, our priority must be to turn first-time enfranchisement into a meaningful democratic experience.

Sample size and method of data collection 

Adolescent Sample

We analysed data from N = 993 young people aged between 12 and 17 living in the UK. Respondents were recruited in collaboration with Survation from curated online panels between 23rd July 2025 until 1st September 2025. To ensure that our data represents a wide range of young people in the UK as best as possible, we used proportional quota to include equal numbers of girls and boys across different ages. We further used representative quota to ensure the representation of young people from twelve regions across the UK. Some of these quotas were relaxed at the end of August 2025 to conclude the data collection. Our final sample was composed of 52.0% boys, 47.6% girls, and 0.4% respondents identifying with another gender. The mean age of participants was 14.6 years old (SD = 1.7). In line with the UK’s population, the majority of participants lived in regions within England, and further 10.5% respondents living in either Northern Ireland, Wales, or Scotland.

Adult Sample

This survey was also scripted on Qualtrics and participants were recruited through Bilendi. Eligble participants were 18 years old and above and lived in the UK. After numerous screening procedures, we had a sample of n = 801. Responses were submitted between 10^th July 2025 and 19^th July 2025. The sample’s quotas were representative of gender, age group, education level, and region in the UK, and these were relaxed at the very end of data collection. This sample was comprised of 50.3% men and 49.7% women, with just over 15% of participants living outside of England in Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales.