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Table 1

Voter Turnout at Federal Elections and Referendums, 1867-1993

Date of election/referendum	Voter turnout (%)
7 August - 20 September 1867¹	73.1
20 July - 12 October 1872	70.3
22 January 1874	69.6
17 September 1878	69.1
20 June 1882	70.3
22 February 1887	70.1
5 March 1891	64.4
23 June 1896	62.9
29 September 1898²	44.6
7 November 1900	77.4
3 November 1904	71.6
26 October 1908	70.3
21 September 1911	70.2
17 December 1917	75.0
6 December 1921	67.7
29 October 1925	66.4
14 September 1926	67.7
28 July 1930	73.5
14 October 1935	74.2
26 March 1940	69.9
27 April 1942²	71.3
11 June 1945	75.3
27 June 1949	73.8
10 August 1953	67.5
10 June 1957	74.1
31 March 1958	79.4
18 June 1962	79.0
8 April 1963	79.2
8 November 1965	74.8
25 June 1968	75.7
30 October 1972	76.7
8 July 1974	71.0
22 May 1979	75.7
18 February 1980	69.3
4 September 1984	75.3
21 November 1988	75.3
26 October 1992^2-3	71.8
25 October 1993	69.6⁴
2 June 1997	67.0

1. In early elections, polling took place over several weeks or even months.
2. A referendum.
3. Does not include Quebec, as Quebec conducted its own referendum.
4. This percentage rises to 70.9 when the number of electors on the lists is adjusted to account for electors who had moved or died between the enumeration for the 1992 referendum and the election of 1993, for which a separate enumeration was not carried out except in Quebec, as the 1992 electoral lists were reused.

Source: Reports of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery (1867-1917); reports of the Chief Electoral Officer (1921-1993); unpublished summary data prepared by Elections Canada; R. Pomfret, The Economic Development of Canada (1987); H.A. Scarrow, Canada Votes (1962); Contact (1985).