Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 12 May 2014.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Caron Walker, dated May 2014
On behalf of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the most recent estimate is of the electoral registration rate for each region of the UK (197950).
Table 1 shows the number of people who were registered to vote in parliamentary elections as a percentage of the estimated resident population aged 18 and over, for the regions of England and UK constituent countries in 2012. This is the latest year for which both electoral statistics and population data are available.
This percentage is the nearest approximation to the percentage registered to vote that can be provided but is not an electoral registration rate. This is because the estimated resident population is not the same as the population who are eligible to vote. The population eligible to vote in parliamentary elections includes British Citizens or qualifying Commonwealth citizens resident overseas (who are not included in the UK resident population) and excludes foreign citizens from outside the British Commonwealth and Republic of Ireland resident within the UK (who are included in the estimated resident population).
In addition, figures for the registered electorate may be inflated because people who have more than one address may register in more than one place (e.g. students may register at parental and term-time addresses) and electoral registration officers vary in how quickly they remove people from the registers after they have moved away from an area or died. This can affect the comparability of figures across parliamentary constituencies and potentially regions.
Table 1: Number of persons registered to vote as a percentage of resident population aged 18 and over for the regions of England and UK constituent countries, 2012 | ||
Area | Percentage rate | |
England | 91 | |
North East | 95 | |
North West | 94 | |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 92 | |
East Midlands | 93 | |
West Midlands | 94 | |
East | 93 | |
London | 81 | |
South East | 92 | |
South West | 94 | |
Wales | 93 | |
Scotland | 92 | |
Northern Ireland | 88 | |
Notes: 1. The rates have been calculated using the mid-2012 population estimates of those aged 18 and over, and the number of people registered to vote (excluding attainers aged under 18) in parliamentary elections on 1 December 2012. 2. The UK electoral statistics are for 1 December 2012 and were published on 28 February 2013. They are available on the ONS website at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/electoral-statistics-for-uk/2012/index.html 3. The latest UK population estimates are for 30 June 2012 and were published on 8 August 2013. They are available on the ONS website at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/population-estimates-for-uk--england-and-wales--scotland-and-northern-ireland/mid-2011-and-mid-2012/index.html Source: 1. Office for National Statistics. 2. National Records of Scotland. 3. Electoral Office for Northern Ireland. |
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