This section gives a brief but comprehensive overview of world-wide voter turnout statistics between 1945-1999, for both parliamentary and presidential elections as well as for the European Parliament elections. It is based on data from the International IDEA Voter Turnout database and covers 171 independent states, 1,129 parliamentary elections, 360 presidential elections* and 64 European Parliament elections. It examines the trends over time within this period, and the differences between geographical regions, between different types of regimes and between different types of electoral systems, including the question of compulsory versus voluntary voting. Finally, the survey looks at what political, institutional and socio-economic factors may be said to correlate with differing voter turnout rates. All figures refer to parliamentary elections if not otherwise indicated.
