Did non-voters outnumber the supporters of each political party in the UK in 2010? I have noticed this image in social media recently:  Googling exercise I was not able to find a source which provided actual numbers (although some secondary sources gave percentages). **Is the assertion that "non-voters outnumbered the supporters of every single political party" true?**

BBC 2010 election page gives a summary. The data can be found at the Electoral Commission which oversees the votes.


Party Seats Gain Loss Net Votes %
Conservative 307 100 3 +97 10,726,614 36.1
Labour 258 3 94 -91 8,609,527 29.0
Liberal Democrat 57 8 13 -5 6,836,824 23.0


These numbers are on a turnout of 65.1%, which is the sum of all valid votes. Thus, 100 - 65.1 = 34.9% did not vote.

Turnout was 29,691,380 - this is all valid votes. So those not voting (including spoilt ballots and invalid postal votes) = 29,691,380 * 349/651 = 15,917,499.

From the Electoral Commission document

> The UK electorate at the 2010 general election was almost 45.6 million

This is the number registered to vote, thus matching the graphic.