Note N03. Published on 26 October 2026. Theme: 29 November general election. Lens: Spain over time.
Turnout in 2023, at 66.6%, is the third lowest in a general election since 1977
In the 16 general elections since 1977, turnout has ranged from 80.0% in 1982 to 66.2% in November 2019. By region, in 2023 there were 14.8 points between Castile-La Mancha and the Canary Islands, and part of the gap comes from voters who live abroad.
In the July 2023 general election, 24.95 million people voted out of an electoral roll of 37.47 million: 12.5 million did not vote. Turnout will be one of the figures of 29 November, and Ministry of the Interior data shows how it has changed since 1977.
The highest value in the series is 1982, at 80.0%. Since then turnout has only gone above 75% in 1993, 1996 and 2004. The three general elections with the lowest turnout are, in order: November 2019 (66.2%), 2016 (66.5%) and 2023 (66.6%). Two of them were repeat elections called about six months after the previous one, and in both turnout fell: 3.2 points in 2016 and 5.5 in November 2019.
The three general elections with the lowest turnout since 1977 are those of 2016, November 2019 and 2023, all below 67%
Turnout in elections to the Congress of Deputies, % of the electoral roll, 1977-2023
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A word of caution about the comparison. The official figure is calculated on the whole roll, which includes Spaniards living abroad, and they vote much less. Between 2011 and 2019 they had to apply for a postal vote before each election (the 'voto rogado'), and in 2023, after Organic Law 12/2022, they no longer did. The results files do not separate their vote, so it is not possible to tell how much of the fall since 2011 is due to them.
By region, in 2023 the one that voted most was Castile-La Mancha, which also has the highest average over the 16 general elections (77.2%), and the one that voted least, leaving aside Ceuta and Melilla, was the Canary Islands. The vote from abroad weighs on that gap: in Galicia there are 19.6 Spaniards in INE's register of residents abroad for every 100 people on the roll, in Asturias 14.4 and in the Canary Islands 10.4, compared with 7.4 for Spain as a whole and 2.8 in Castile-La Mancha. But it does not explain everything: the Balearic Islands (61.3%) and Catalonia (62.7%) voted little with fewer residents abroad than average (5.2 and 6.4 per 100). Catalonia also fell 6.7 points from November 2019, the largest drop of the 17 regions.
In 2023, 73.0% of the electoral roll voted in Castile-La Mancha and 58.2% in the Canary Islands: a gap of 14.8 points
Turnout in the July 2023 election to the Congress of Deputies by region, % of the electoral roll
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What this data does not say. These are provincial totals: they do not say who votes by age, income or education, which can only be estimated with surveys, nor why turnout rises or falls in each election.
See also: 29 November general election