40% of 16 and 17-year-olds not registered to vote in Scottish election

Nearly 50,000 of the youngest Scottish teenagers eligible to vote in the Holyrood election are not registered.

Around 4.2 million voters will head to the polls in May to elect the seventh Scottish Parliament.

But figures released by the National Records of Scotland show that only around 60% of 16 and 17-year-olds in Scotland are registered to vote – a total of 74,100 registered voters.

Currently, anyone who lives in Scotland and can register to vote, provided they are 16 or over on the day of the poll and have not been legally excluded from voting.

As of December last year, more than 4.2 million people were registered to vote in the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections.

Across the country, 4,266,700 people are registered to vote for Scottish Parliamentary and local council elections – a decrease of 0.3% on the previous year.

The number of foreign nationals on the electoral register has increased each year and reached a record high of 198,100 in December 2025, 4.6% of the total electorate.

Around one in five electors are registered to vote by post.

Scots have until midnight on April 20 to register to vote.