The Truth Behind The ‘72% Of Young People Turned Out To Vote’ Fact Going Viral

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Have the young people of Britain just pulled off something incredible in the General Election?

You may or may not have seen the reports circulating that the election has sparked a 72% turnout among voters aged 18 to 24.

The truth is, there is no way of knowing just yet.  So where did that figure come from?

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The earliest claim, according to Indy 100,  originated from a tweet by Alex Cairns, a blogger at HuffPost.

At 11.06pm, just one hour after the polls closed and before any seats were declared, he said his ‘contacts’ had told him the turnout ‘will be around 72/73%’.

And a couple of hours later, at 1.46am, Malia Bouattia, the President of the National Union of Students sent out a tweet, saying early reports suggest 72% of 18-24s voted. 

The speculation is ‘likely based on increased overall turnout’ and Labour doing ‘much better than initially expected’.

While it was expected to be a landslide for the Conservatives, ending up with an increased majority. Instead Labour have gained at least 29 seats, and the Tories have lost at least 12 – resulting in a hung parliament.

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In the last four general elections (2001, 2005, 2010 and 2015), youth turnout was only around 40%, writes the Metro.

43% of people aged 18 to 24 voted in the last election and in the EU referendum, only 64%.

And, this election saw a general turnout of 68%, which is the highest since Labour won under Tony Blair in 1997.

Amazing show… if true!

UNILAD