German Voting Turn-Out

 This is an interesting topic.  

After the war, 1949....the turn-out for the national election in West Germany was 78-percent.  Take into consideration that from day one of this era....voting was to occur on Sundays.

1953?  86-percent showed up.

1957? 87-percent showed up.

1961?  87-percent showed up.

1965?  87-percent showed up.

This was the normal trend for West Germany for a number of years.

1972?  91-percent showed up.

Then you come to unified Germany in 1990 (November), and the 78-percent number pops up.

1994?  79-percent. 

From that era onto the fall of 2021....it's generally in the 70-to-75 percent range.  For 2021, it was in the 76-percent range.

So roughly one out of four Germans, since unification....don't vote.  You can ask questions over this, but it just leads to a dozen-odd theories about why eastern-born Germans vote at a lesser level, or that the welfare-class of Germany don't show-up.

A big deal?  If you could persuade 10-percent of the country who never vote.....to show up, and push the level of participation from the 75-percent range to a 85-percent range...that's a couple million extra votes.  

Yeah, the dynamics of the Bundestag would probably change if this were to occur. 

Just a odd feature of the country.