More than 4.2m people registered to vote in May elections, figures show

More than 4.2 million people were registered to vote in the forthcoming Scottish Parliament elections in December 2025, a slight drop on the previous year, figures show.

However, it is expected that the number of people registered will have increased by the time of the election in May as people do so to ensure they can vote.

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) figures also show that, in December 2025, 4,035,600 people were registered to vote in UK elections, down by 0.3% on the previous year.

At that point, there were 4,266,700 people registered to vote for Scottish parliamentary and local council elections, a 0.4% drop on the previous year.

NRS said, despite the slight drops, the number of people registered to vote in Scotland showed a generally “upward trend” between 2015 and 2025.

The figures also show the number of foreign nationals on the electoral register for Scottish parliamentary elections reached a record high of 198,100 in December 2025 – 4.6% of the total electorate.

The number of 16 and 17-year-olds registered to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections fell slightly to 74,100 (1.7% of the electorate), and amounts to about 60% of that age group living in Scotland.

NRS said this is the first time that electorate data has been collected for the new Scottish parliamentary constituencies which came into force in October 2025 following a review by Boundaries Commission Scotland.

The average number of registered voters per constituency was 58,400.

The constituency with the most people registered to vote was Almond Valley (72,200) while the smallest on the mainland was Argyll and Bute (49,600).

The smallest electorate was Shetland Islands with 17,900 people registered.

NRS also published data for anonymous registration which is available to electors whose safety would be at risk if their name or address were listed on the electoral register.

As of December 2025, there were 155 anonymous voters on the electoral register for Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections.

The deadline to register to vote is midnight on Monday 20 April and voters can apply online at gov.uk/register-to-vote.