The Nordic countries consistently observe a voter turnout above the world average. A high participation rate is often regarded as important and valuable to democracy in Nordic countries, and all countries strive for a high turnout. Variations between the countries exist, both in terms of overall election turnout and demographic voter trends. Like in Latvia and much of the world, participation is the highest in parliamentary elections. Nordic citizens living in another Nordic country have the right to vote in the local elections of their country of residence.
As a general rule, the Nordic countries hold their respective parliamentary elections every four years. The most recent election was in Sweden on 11 September 2022 with a turnout of 84.2%. This is lower than the previous parliamentary election, but together with Denmark and the Faroe islands, still among the highest in the Nordics. In Denmark, Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen, is expected to announce a snap election in the coming days before the four-year election cycle ends, as is common in the country.
Voter turnout is the lowest in Greenland, Finland and Åland. Of the five Nordic states, Norway has the second-lowest and Finland has the lowest participation rate in their general elections.
Overview of electoral participation in most recent parliamentary elections in the Nordic countries, from highest to lowest:
- Faroe Islands (2019) 89.4%
- Denmark (2019) 84.6%
- Sweden (2022) 84.2%
- Iceland (2021) 80.1%
- Norway (2021) 77.2%
- Åland (2019) 69.7%
- Finland (2019) 68.7%
- Greenland (2019) 65.9%
The Baltic countries, and Latvia in particular, saw high levels of electoral participation in the early 1990s, but this has since declined. Estonia had the highest participation rate in the Baltics' most recent parliamentary elections, with 63.7% in 2019. Since the 1999 parliamentary election, Estonia has also seen an overall positive trend. Lithuania had the lowest electoral turnout of the three countries most recent general elections, with 47.8% of eligible voters voting.
The voter turnout in Latvia's 13th Saeima election in 2018 was 54.6%.
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