Ottawa

The uninterested

According to a Statistics Canada survey, 27.7% of Canadians confessed to not voting in the last election because they weren’t interested of those who didn’t vote in the last election identified a lack of interest as the reason for their failure to do so.*

On the subject of apathy, you might add the 22.9% (of non-voters) who claimed to be “too busy” to vote, but let’s stick with the admittedly apathetic for a moment. The demographic breakdowns of that group are as follows.

Men were more apathetic than women (29.2% to 26.1%).

Broken down by age group, it is not merely the young (non-voters) who admit to being disinterested. Not until you approach retirement-aged Canadians non-voters does the number begin to drop markedly.

18 to 24 years old: 29.9%
25 to 32 years old: 30.8%
35 to 44 years old: 27.5%
45 to 54 years old: 29.1%
55 to 64 years old: 25.8%
65 to 74 years old: 21.3%
75 years old and over: 13.4%

By province, Quebec respondents non-voters (35.3%) were the least interested most-admittedly uninterested.

By geography, (non-voting) Canadians in large urban centres were more likely to vote than Canadians in more rural areas. were less likely to identify disinterest as their reason for not voting.

And finally, by immigrant status, the numbers are as follows.

Immigrants with citizenship who landed in previous 10 years: 13.8%
Immigrants with citizenship who landed more than 10 years ago: 20.4%
Canadian citizens by birth: 29.9%

Make of all of this what you will.

*StatsCan notes that I incorrectly presented the numbers as a percentage of all Canadians. The numbers are, in fact, a percentage of those who didn’t vote in the last election. Corrections and clarifications throughout.

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