Willing but Wary: Adolescents, Democracy and Votes at 16

The IP-PAD UK Adolescent 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. You can download the full report here

Image credit: Ms Jane Campbell on Shutterstock

Summary

At the next general election, the UK will undergo the most significant electoral change in half a century 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 participate in politics, 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.

The findings from our survey on UK adults 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, the priority for UK politics and society must be to turn first-time enfranchisement into a meaningful democratic experience.

Key Findings

1.  High willingness to engage: Most adolescents are ready to participate politically, especially when it comes to voting.

2. Widespread future anxiety: Many young people feel uncertain or worried about their future.

3.  Low political agency: Adolescents trust their own political abilities more than they trust government responsiveness, but both remain low

4.  Low institutional trust: Political parties, in particular, are viewed with skepticism.

5.  Democratic satisfaction mirrors adults: Levels of satisfaction with democracy are similar to those of the adult population.

6.  Anxiety dampens engagement: Higher future anxiety is linked to lower voting intentions, reduced political participation, and less trust in political parties.

7.  Adults sceptical about ‘Vote at 16’: A majority of adults fear lowering the voting age may harm democracy through greater polarisation, populism, instability, and possibly 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%).[1] 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).[2] 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. In contrast, those who reported more discomfort from living off their current household income were associated with lower political engagement across all measures, especially interest in politics.

[1] Sturge, G. (2024). ‘2024 General Election: Turnout’, House of Commons Library, https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/general-election-2024-turnout/.

[2] Barnes, E., & Loose, E., (2025). Youth Poll UK 2025. John Smith Centre, University of Glasgow. https://doi.org/10.36399/gla.pubs.372047

2.Yet Anxious about the Future

The majority of adolescents reported significant anxiety about the future (55%). We asked them to rate their anxiety in relation to five different aspects about their future. Adolescents expressed the most anxiety about potential changes in the current economic and political situation threatening their future. Girls were overall 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. Additionally, participants who reported greater discomfort from their current household income were more likely to report higher future anxiety.

3.Low in political agency

Adolescents express a lack of faith in British democratic institutions as shown by their answers to questions around their political agency.

How much political agency do adolescents experience? We looked at two different aspects of political agency. First, we asked them about their belief in their capability or competence to understand, participate and have an impact in political processes. This is often discussed in political science as internal political efficacy. Second, we looked at their beliefs about the responsiveness of the government and political institutions to their demands, also known as external political efficacy. In other words, to what extent do adolescents believe that government and institutions listen to them?

Adolescents 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 of 16-years-old and above.[1] External political efficacy was even lower, with a majority of 61.6% adolescents 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.

[1] Barnes, E., & Loose, E., (2025). Youth Poll UK 2025. John Smith Centre, University of Glasgow. https://doi.org/10.36399/gla.pubs.372047

4.Distrusting Political Parties

We asked our participants to tell us how much they trust different institutions. The level of trust varied across institutions. Respondents showed more trust towards the Courts of Justice and the Police rather than those relevant to policy-making and executive decisions, such as the UK government. Distrust for political parties was particularly pronounced, ranking 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.

Findings of low trust levels are consistent with those of young people expressing low levels of external political efficacy. They suggest that young people lack faith in the UK’s democratic institutions. While other measures show lacking faith has not yet led to large disenfranchisement from democracy, giving young people the vote may not be enough. Making them feel that democracy matters to them and it is something they can have an impact on may be necessary for youth political engagement even when given the right to participate. Trust levels are not affected by gender, however we found that those who live in cities are generally more trusting than those living in rural areas. Additionally, higher discomfort on one’s household income strongly correlates to lower trust in political institutions.

Although trust levels are low, they are still much higher than those expressed by British adults. Adults expressed similar trust rankings, with courts at the top and political parties at the bottom. Yet, adults’ levels of trust were much lower for the UK government, the media, and political parties – 27%, 19%, and 12% respectively[1] - compared to the adolescents. Therefore, while levels of trust in political institutions among young people are low, they are above those of adults — a point that may shape, though not determine, how political engagement develops among newly enfranchised adolescents.

[1]Office for National Statistics (ONS), (2024). ‘Trust in Government, UK: 2023‘, Office for National Statistics,  https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/trustingovernmentuk/2023. 

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 of adults (47% satisfied, 28% unsatisfied).[1] 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. Perhaps unsurprisingly, higher income discomfort was associated with lower democratic satisfaction. Importantly, increasing youth representation through expanding the right to vote to younger citizens could be one solution to counteract feelings of dissatisfaction and disengagement, and future research should investigate such effects.

[1] The Electoral Commission, (2025). ’Public Attitudes 2025’, The Electoral Commission, https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/research-reports-and-data/public-attitudes/public-attitudes-2025.

Integrating the findings

Some of our observations are inter-related. Future anxiety and political trust are not equally present across the country. We observe that respondents in urban areas reported lower future anxiety and higher political trust than those living in  smaller towns and villages. This suggests that the environment a child grows up in, whether it is rural countryside or urban sprawl, might affect features key to their political engagement. In line with this suggestion, young people living in urban areas also expressed higher satisfaction with democracy. Increased discomfort was associated with lower engagement measures, lower political trust, and higher future anxiety. Therefore, it was unsurprising that increased discomfort also correlated with lower satisfaction with democracy. Additionally, those living in more rural areas were more likely to express discomfort.

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 positively associated 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. To increase young people's support of democracy, the UK Government and UK political parties 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 the survey on young adolescents, 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 findings from our survey on UK adults 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, the priority for UK politics and society must be to turn first-time enfranchisement into a meaningful democratic experience.

Sample size and method of data collection 

Adolescent Sample

The survey was designed by Irene Arahal-Moreno, Olaf Borghi, Dr Kaat Smets and Professor Manos Tsakiris. 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

The survey was designed by Irene Arahal-Moreno, Olaf Borghi, Dr Kaat Smets, and Professor Manos Tsakiris. We analysed data from N = 801 participants above 18 years old living in the UK. Participants were recruited in collaboration with Bilendi from online panels,  between 10th July 2025 and 19th 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.

Acknowledgments

This research was conducted as part of the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Adolescence and Democracy (IP-PAD) Doctoral Network. IP-PAD is funded by the European Union, under the Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Networks programme (Call HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01, Grant Agreement No. 101072992) with participation from the UKRI Horizon Europe guarantee’ scheme UKRI EPSRC EP/X026825/1.  Manos Tsakiris is also supported by a NOMIS Foundation Grant for the Centre for the Politics of Feelings.