People online keep saying that 72% of young people turned out to vote in the general election.
Early reports suggest that 72% of 18-24s voted. Some people are surprised. We are not. #GenerationVote
Including the re-elected Labour MP for Tottenham, David Lammy.
72% turnout for 18-25 year olds. Big up yourselves 👊👏 #GE2017
72% of 18-25 year olds voted. You fucking heroes.
From 33% turnout in the EU referendum 2016 to 72% in #GE2017. 18-24 year olds you have just made history!
So proud of this generation that have made history and truly made voices heard! 72%!!! ✊🏽✊🏼✊🏾✊🏻✊🏿S/O @BiteTheBallot… https://t.co/nlBulmcLqF
The earliest tweet about this appears to have been posted at 11pm on Thursday night – an hour after the polls closed.
My contacts are telling me that the turnout from 18-24 year olds will be around 72/73%! Finally the Youth have turn… https://t.co/cxSBJ9FBfP
Now news outlets are repeating the statistic.
Metro embedded former NUS president Malia Bouattia’s tweet in its story but have no other source.
The i website cites Sky News as the source for the 72% figure.
However, The Telegraph also cites Sky News, but says turnout for 18-24 year olds is 66.4%.
And The Times is reporting that the youth vote is only 5% higher than the 2015 turnout, which was 43%.
The Times reporting 18-24 turnout up 5% compared with 2015 (so about 48%) - seems more realistic.
Sky Data posted this tweet at 10.39pm on Thursday following its own on-the-day poll. It also does not tally up with the 72% figure.
Vote by age group (Sky Data on the day poll) 18-34 Lab 63% Con 27% 35-54 Lab 43% Con 43% 55+ Lab 23% Con 59%
And pollster Ipsos Mori said the turnout figure takes about a week to establish.
@FactCheck @BoscoTann @jonlaurence @jonsnowC4 @IpsosMORI No - we produce it after each election later but it takes… https://t.co/eMcbxSAbuK
TL;DR: We don't know what the youth turnout was yet.
