Share of senior citizens in voting age population highest ever

In the second of a two-part series, Business Standard looks at the growing number of senior citizens among the voting age population, including gender differences and a cross-country comparison with other poll-bound nations in 2024

- SAMREEN WANI

Sabita, 62, voted for the first time in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. A high school graduate and a homemaker, she and her husband travel on a bike to vote at a polling station near their home in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.

Sabita (name changed on request) is keeping tabs on promises made by various candidates in her constituency and national security issues are close to her heart.

She wants the Election Commission (EC) to erect more sheds at polling booths for senior citizens voting in the summer sun. People older than 60, like Sabita, comprise almost 16 per cent of the voting-age population in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, shows an analysis of United Nations population data that goes back to the first national elections in 1951-52. Senior citizens comprised around 11 per cent of the voting age population in the first elections.

This year, their number is the highest in any national election.

The analysis considers all senior citizens, but not everyone of them may have registered to vote. It found that the share of female senior citizens among the voting-age population is at its highest in 2024 at 8 per cent (charts 1,2).