The total number of votes cast at British general elections has obviously increased as the size of the electorate has increased. The 1832 Reform Act did something to increase the size of the electorate but the main expansion in the Nineteenth Century came with the 1867 Reform Act for urban Britain to be followed by the same in 1884 for rural Britain. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act allowed women aged 30 or over (with property qualifications) to vote for the first time and this did a great deal to increase the overall size of the electorate.

 

1832: 827,748

 

1835: 611,182

 

1837: 797,989

 

1841: 593,444

 

1847: 482,429

 

1852: 743,894

 

1857: 716,549

 

1859: 565,500

 

1865: 854,572

 

1868: 2,333,251

 

1874: 2,466,122

 

1880: 3,359,216

 

1885: 4,638,235

 

1886: 2,974,163

 

1892: 4,598,319

 

1895: 3,866,282

 

1900: 3,523,482

 

1906: 5,626,091

 

1910: 6,667,400

 

1910*: 5,235,238

 

1918: 10,786,818

 

1922: 14,392,330

 

1923: 14,547,695

 

1924: 16,640,279

 

1929: 22,648,375

 

1931: 21,656,373

 

1935: 21,997,054

 

1945: 25,095,195

 

1950: 28,771,124

 

1951: 28,596,594

 

1955: 26,759,729

 

1959: 27,862,652

 

1964: 27,657,148

 

1966: 27,264,747

 

1970: 28,344,798

 

1974: 31,340,162

 

1974**: 29,189,104

 

1979: 31,221,362

 

* = December

 

** = October