{"id":2258,"date":"2023-02-17T11:58:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T11:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/political-perspectives\/?p=2258"},"modified":"2023-02-21T09:45:46","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T09:45:46","slug":"political-impact-of-uk-ageing-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/political-perspectives\/2023\/02\/17\/political-impact-of-uk-ageing-population\/","title":{"rendered":"The Political Impact of the UK\u2019s Ageing Population"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Author: James Breckwoldt<\/span><\/p>\n

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The UK has an ageing population. The Office for National Statistics (2018) projects that in 50 years\u2019 time, there are likely to be an additional 8.6 million people aged 65 years and over, which will make up 26% of the population \u2013 up from 18% in 2016. This will mean a changed electorate with a greater percentage of older voters and a decrease in younger voters. How this might manifest itself in electoral politics, and what the potential effects of the current wealth inequality between generations are, is the focus of this blog.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Politics<\/h3>\n

In general elections, the UK has gone from a situation in 2010 where 18-24 year olds voted 31-30 Labour-Conservative and 65 and over voted 44-31 Conservative-Labour (Ipsos MORI 2010) to the 2019 General Election where 18-24 year olds voted 56-21 Labour-Conservative, but those aged 70 and above voting 67-14 Conservative-Labour (McDonnell and Curtis 2019). 2017 saw similar age divides and the increased youth support for Labour was described as a \u2018Youthquake\u2019 (Sloam, Ehsan, and Henn 2018) \u2013 although the extent of how much turnout increased was disputed (Prosser et al. 2020). This evidence led Loughran et al. (2021) to conclude that \u2018age has become the primary demographic explaining voter choice within the British electorate.\u2019<\/p>\n

This rising level of electoral polarisation between age groups has been picked up by the British media, headlines have included:<\/p>\n