Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums
About this table
Presenting these figures involves several challenges. The data contained in official election results since Confederation have not been reported consistently. In the case of an election by acclamation, for instance, the number of registered electors on the lists for that electoral district was included in the total number of registered electors for some elections, but not for others. In other cases, lists of electors were not prepared for some districts. In Prince Edward Island, no lists were prepared in the entire province for several elections.
Moreover, a number of electoral districts were dual-member constituencies until 1966. As each elector could vote for more than one candidate, the reported number of votes cast (valid and rejected ballots) was higher than it would have been in a single-member scenario. Voter turnout figures have been corrected where appropriate: to estimate turnout in these cases, the total number of votes cast in a plural-member electoral district was divided by the number of members elected from that district (see Scarrow 1962).
| Date of election/ referendum |
Population | Number of Electors on lists |
Total ballots cast |
Voter turnout (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 August - 20 September 1867Footnote 1 | 3,230,000 | 361,028 | 268,387 | 73.1 |
| 20 July - 12 October 1872 | 3,689,000 | 426,974 | 318,329 | 70.3 |
| 22 January 1874 | 3,689,000 | 432,410 | 324,006 | 69.6 |
| 17 September 1878 | 3,689,000 | 715,279 | 534,029 | 69.1 |
| 20 June 1882 | 4,325,000 | 663,873 | 508,496 | 70.3 |
| 22 February 1887 | 4,325,000 | 948,222 | 724,517 | 70.1 |
| 5 March 1891 | 4,833,000 | 1,113,140 | 778,495 | 64.4 |
| 23 June 1896 | 4,833,000 | 1,358,328 | 912,992 | 62.9 |
| 29 September 1898Footnote 2 | 4,833,000 | 1,236,419 | 551,405 | 44.6 |
| 7 November 1900 | 4,833,000 | 1,167,402 | 958,497 | 77.4 |
| 3 November 1904 | 5,371,000 | 1,385,440 | 1,036,878 | 71.6 |
| 26 October 1908 | 5,371,000 | 1,463,591 | 1,180,820 | 70.3 |
| 21 September 1911 | 7,204,527 | 1,820,742 | 1,314,953 | 70.2 |
| 17 December 1917 | 7,591,971 | 2,093,799 | 1,892,741 | 75.0 |
| 6 December 1921 | 8,760,211 | 4,435,310 | 3,139,306 | 67.7 |
| 29 October 1925 | 8,776,352 | 4,608,636 | 3,168,412 | 66.4 |
| 14 September 1926 | 8,887,952 | 4,665,381 | 3,273,062 | 67.7 |
| 28 July 1930 | 8,887,952 | 5,153,971 | 3,922,481 | 73.5 |
| 14 October 1935 | 10,367,063 | 5,918,207 | 4,452,675 | 74.2 |
| 26 March 1940 | 10,429,169 | 6,588,888 | 4,672,531 | 69.9 |
| 27 April 1942Footnote 2 | 11,494,627 | 6,502,234 | 4,638,847 | 71.3 |
| 11 June 1945 | 11,494,627 | 6,952,445 | 5,305,193 | 75.3 |
| 27 June 1949 | 11,823,649 | 7,893,629 | 5,903,572 | 73.8 |
| 10 August 1953 | 14,003,704 | 8,401,691 | 5,701,963 | 67.5 |
| 10 June 1957 | 16,073,970 | 8,902,125 | 6,680,690 | 74.1 |
| 31 March 1958 | 16,073,970 | 9,131,200 | 7,357,139 | 79.4 |
| 18 June 1962 | 18,238,247 | 9,700,325 | 7,772,656 | 79.0 |
| 8 April 1963 | 18,238,247 | 9,910,757 | 7,958,636 | 79.2 |
| 8 November 1965 | 18,238,247 | 10,274,904 | 7,796,728 | 74.8 |
| 25 June 1968 | 20,014,880 | 10,860,888 | 8,217,916 | 75.7 |
| 30 October 1972 | 21,568,311 | 13,000,778 | 9,974,661 | 76.7 |
| 8 July 1974 | 21,568,311 | 13,620,353 | 9,671,002 | 71.0 |
| 22 May 1979 | 22,992,604 | 15,233,653 | 11,541,000 | 75.7 |
| 18 February 1980 | 22,992,604 | 15,890,416 | 11,015,514 | 69.3 |
| 4 September 1984 | 24,343,181 | 16,774,941 | 12,638,424 | 75.3 |
| 21 November 1988 | 25,309,331 | 17,639,001 | 13,281,191 | 75.3 |
| 26 October 1992Footnote 2 Footnote 3 | 20,400,896 | 13,725,966 | 9,855,978 | 71.8 |
| 25 October 1993 | 27,296,859 | 19,906,796 | 13,863,135 | 69.6Footnote 4 |
| 2 June 1997 | 27,296,859 | 19,663,478 | 13,174,698 | 67.0 |
| 27 November 2000 | 28,846,761 | 21,243,473 | 12,997,185 | 61.2Footnote 5 |
| 28 June 2004 | 30,007,094 | 22,466,621 | 13,683,570 | 60.9 |
| 23 January 2006 | 30,007,094 | 23,054,615 | 14,908,703 | 64.7 |
| 14 October 2008 | 31,612,897 | 23,677,639 | 13,929,093 | 58.8 |
| 2 May 2011 | 33,476,688 | 24,257,592 | 14,823,408 | 61.1 |
- Return to source of Footnote 1 In early elections, polling took place over several weeks or even months.
- Return to source of Footnote 2 A referendum.
- Return to source of Footnote 3 Does not include Quebec, as Quebec conducted its own referendum.
- Return to source of Footnote 4 This percentage rises to 70.9 when the number of electors on the lists is adjusted to account for electors who had moved or died between the enumeration for the 1992 referendum and the election of 1993, for which a separate enumeration was not carried out except in Quebec, as the 1992 electoral lists were reused.
- Return to source of Footnote 5 The turnout of 61.2% in 2000 was adjusted to arrive at the
final turnout of 64.1%, after our normal maintenance of the National Register
of Electors to remove the names of deceased electors and duplicates arising
from moves. The Chief Electoral Officer of Canada explained the adjustment
during his appearance before the Subcommittee on Electoral Boundaries Readjustment
on October 6, 2003, and his appearance to discuss the 2004 Main
Estimates before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs on
March 5, 2004.
Source: Reports of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery (1867-1917); reports of the Chief Electoral Officer (1921-2008); unpublished summary data prepared by Elections Canada; R. Pomfret, The Economic Development of Canada (1987); H.A. Scarrow, Canada Votes (1962); Contact (1985).