Press release no. 06/24 of 21. Februar 2024
2024 European election: up to 64.9 million people eligible to vote in Germany
WIESBADEN – According to a first estimate by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), up to 64.9 million Germans and other citizens of the European Union (EU) – 33.3 million women and 31.7 million men – will be eligible to vote in Germany in the tenth direct elections to the European Parliament on 9 June 2024.
The electorate includes roughly 60.9 million Germans who are officially eligible to vote. In addition, approximately 4.1 million other Union citizens will be entitled to cast their votes in the election. These are citizens of other EU Member States who are resident in the Federal Republic of Germany. They can decide whether to exercise their right to vote in the European Parliament elections in Germany or in their home Member State. To vote in the election in Germany, they must apply to be entered in the electoral register. This application must either have been made for a European Parliament election held since 1999 or be submitted by 19 May 2024 to the municipality where the voter is a registered resident. For the election to the ninth European Parliament in 2019, 0.2 million Union citizens were registered to vote in Germany.
More information on the right of EU citizens to vote can be found on the website of the Federal Returning Officer (www.bundeswahlleiterin.de) under European Parliament election 2024 → Information for voters → Union citizens.
The electorate includes an estimated 4.8 million potential German first-time voters (2019: 3.9 million) and up to 0.3 million young Union citizens (2019: 0.2 million). The higher number of eligible voters compared to the last European election is due to a change to the European Elections Act, which allows 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the European elections for the first time.
| Age from ... to ... years3 | Total | Germans | EU citizens4 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| total | women | men | total | women | men | total | women | men | |
| 16 - 29 | 9.5 | 4.7 | 4.9 | 8.8 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| 30 - 49 | 19.3 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 17.5 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 1.0 |
| 50 - 64 | 17.4 | 8.8 | 8.7 | 16.5 | 8.3 | 8.2 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| 65 and over | 18.6 | 10.4 | 8.3 | 18.1 | 10.1 | 8.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Total | 64.9 | 33.3 | 31.7 | 60.9 | 31.4 | 29.5 | 4.1 | 1.9 | 2.2 |
| including: | |||||||||
| first-time voters5 | 5.1 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 4.8 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
1 Based on the population as determined by the 2011 Census.
2 The total for age groups may deviate slightly from the sum total as individual values are rounded up or down.
3 Age reached in 2024.
4 Citizens of other EU Member States who are resident in Germany and eligible to vote in principle. To vote in Germany, they must apply to be added to an electoral register.
5 Born in the period from 27 May 2001 to 9 June 2008.
Germany will continue to have 96 representatives in the European Parliament. Following a vote on a proposal by the European Council on 12 September 2023, the number of European Parliament members will increase from 705 to 720 in the next electoral term. One additional seat has been allocated to Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Austria, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Two additional seats have been allocated to France, the Netherlands and Spain. The United Kingdom left the EU on 31 January 2020.
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