Study: Political activity among young adults

Young adults do not vote as often as people in older age groups, but they help make up for it by engaging in other politically-related activities, according to a new report published today in Canadian Social Trends.

The report "Willing to participate: Political engagement of young adults", available free online, used data from the General Social Survey to examine the extent of political activity among young adults aged 22 to 29. It measured their traditional political participation, that is, voting, as well as alternative activities, such as participating in demonstrations or attending public meetings.

The survey found that only 59% of individuals in their 20s had voted in at least one election immediately prior to the survey, which was conducted in 2003. (Nationally, 77% of the voting-age population overall had cast a ballot.)

In contrast, 71% of individuals aged 30 to 44 interviewed in the survey had voted, as did 85% or more of those aged 45 and over. All age groups were less likely to vote in local than in federal and provincial elections.

The report notes that researchers have suggested various reasons that young adults are not as likely to go to the polls. Among them are questions of motivation, marginalization from mainstream politics and a lack of relevance.

However, young adults are just as likely as older age groups to engage in alternative activities.

In the year prior to the survey, about 58% of those aged 22 to 29 engaged in at least one non-voting political activity, virtually the same proportion as that among people aged 30 to 64.

Nearly one-third of 22 to 29 year-olds had signed a petition; about one-quarter had either boycotted or chosen a product for ethical reasons, while over one-sixth had attended a public meeting. A small proportion (3%) had worked as a volunteer for a political party.

The higher their level of education, the more likely these young people were to participate in such non-voting activity, and the more likely they were to vote as well.

On a regional basis, the proportion of young people who turned out to vote was highest in Quebec. Nearly three-quarters of people aged 22 to 29 in Quebec had cast a ballot in the last election prior to the survey, compared with 56% in the Prairies and 53% in Ontario.

In addition, Canadian-born young people were more politically engaged than their immigrant counterparts.

Two-thirds of Canadian-born adults aged 22 to 29 had voted in an election, compared with less than one-third of foreign-born youth. Canadian-born youth were also more likely to engage in alternative political activity.

This new issue of Canadian Social Trends also contains four other articles.

"Aiming high: Educational aspirations of visible minority immigrant youth" explores the educational goals of 15-year-old visible minority students.

"The housing transitions of seniors" examines seniors who downsize and upsize, and who move for lifestyle reasons.

"Getting to work" examines commuting patterns between 1996 and 2001 as they relate to job growth in the suburbs. (This article is adapted from "Work and commuting in census metropolitan areas, 1996 to 2001," the seventh research paper in the Statistics Canada series Trends and Conditions in Canadian Census Metropolitan Areas.)

"Ethno-cultural diversity in Canada: Prospects for 2017" uses recent population projections to draw a statistical portrait of the nation's ethno-cultural composition when Canada celebrates its 150^th anniversary. (This article is adapted from "Population projections of visible minority groups, Canada, provinces and regions: 2001 to 2017," which was published in March 2005.)

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5024.

The winter 2005 issue of Canadian Social Trends, no. 79 (11-008-XIE, $9/$29; 11-008-XPE, $12/$39) is now available.

For more information, contact Client Services and Dissemination (613-951-5979; sasd-dssea@statcan.gc.ca), Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division.