Old enough to vote at sixteen?

Every few years, a country quietly lowers the age at which its citizens may vote, and every time the same arguments return. In Austria, sixteen-year-olds have been able to vote in national, regional and local elections since 2007. In Scotland, they have voted in Scottish Parliament and council (1) elections since 2016. In Brazil, voting is optional for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds, while it is compulsory for most adults. In 2025, Britain's government announced that it intends to extend the vote to sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds in all UK elections. What was once a fringe (2) cause is becoming an ordinary item on the reform agenda.

Supporters begin with a point about consistency. In many countries, a sixteen-year-old can take a full-time job and pay income tax, yet has no say in how that money is spent. If young people are trusted with a pay slip, the argument runs, they can be trusted with a ballot paper (3).

There is also an argument from habit. Voting, supporters say, is a skill learned by doing. A first-time voter at eighteen is often moving out, changing city and starting university or a job all at once, and the polling station is one more thing to worry about. At sixteen, most young people are still at school and living with their families. Teachers can explain how elections work, and parents can take them to vote. Habits formed in that stable setting, the argument goes, are more likely to last.

Opponents are not short of replies. Sixteen, they say, is simply too young: teenagers lack experience of life and may be swayed by slogans on social media or by pressure from their parents or teachers. A second objection is one of coherence. In many countries the law treats sixteen-year-olds as too young to buy alcohol, sit on a jury or sign certain contracts. Why, then, should they be treated as full citizens on polling day?

Whether the reform works probably depends less on the age itself than on what surrounds it. Good civic education at school, clear information about what the parties are offering and a ballot that young people feel is worth casting matter more than a birthday. A country that lowers the age without investing in its classrooms may simply be adding names to the register (4).

Both camps agree that young people are not indifferent to politics: they march, sign petitions and argue online. The question is whether they should do so with a vote in their hands. To make the vote a prize for demonstrated maturity would be hard to defend, since no adult is ever asked to pass such a test. Yet voting is more than a right; it is also a duty to think. Democracies that extend the first should be ready to pay for the second.