Other Countries

[Brendan Perez]

I don't remember this type of info being posted before, so here goes.

I was looking at the CIA's 2004 World Fact Book and it lists each countries suffrage (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2123.html) age, as well as military (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2024.html) age.

Below I've copied each country listed with any kind of voting age below 18 with their listed military age in (XX):
I also bolded the countries I saw with voting ages higher than military.

The military age comes from a field called "Military manpower - military age" which is as defined as:This entry gives the minimum age at which an individual may volunteer for military service or be subject to conscription.

I counted 14 countries either with universal or conditional voting ages below 18 and only one seemed to match their under 18 voting age with an under 18 military service age.

I know voting may not mean crap in some of these countries, but it is interesting to see these countries with laws like these on the books.


Australia:18 years of age; universal and compulsory (17)

Bahrain:18 years of age; universal (15)

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 16 years of age, if employed; 18 years of age, universal (19)

Brazil: voluntary between 16 and 18 years of age and over 70; compulsory over 18 and under 70 years of age (18)

Canada:18 years of age; universal (17)

Croatia:18 years of age; universal (16 years of age, if employed) (19)

Cuba:16 years of age; universal {17)

Dominican Republic:18 years of age, universal and compulsory; married persons regardless of age [note: members of the armed forces and police cannot vote] (18)

East Timor:17 years of age; universal (18)

India:18 years of age; universal (17)

Indonesia:17 years of age; universal and married persons regardless of age (18)

Iran:15 years of age; universal (22)

Italy:18 years of age; universal (except in senatorial elections, where minimum age is 25) (18)

Japan:20 years of age; universal (18)

Korea, North:17 years of age; universal (17)

Libya:18 years of age; universal and compulsory (17)

Lithuania:18 years of age; universal (16)

Nepal:18 years of age; universal (17)

Nicaragua:16 years of age; universal (18)

Oman:in Oman's most recent elections in 2000, limited to approximately 175,000 Omanis chosen by the government to vote in elections for the Majlis al-Shura (14)

Pakistan:18 years of age; universal; joint electorates and reserved parliamentary seats for women and non-Muslims (17)

Peru:18 years of age; universal and compulsory until the age of 70; note - members of the military may not vote (17)

Saudi Arabia:none note: in October 2003, Council of Ministers announced its intent to introduce elections for half of the members of local and provincial assemblies and a third of the members of the national Consultative Council or Majlis al-Shura, incrementally over a period of four to five years (17)

Serbia and Montenegro:16 years of age, if employed; 18 years of age, universal (19 w/ 9mos. compulsory service)

Seychelles:17 years of age; universal (NA)

Slovenia:18 years of age; universal (16 years of age, if employed) (19)

Sudan:17 years of age; universal, but noncompulsory (18)

Vietnam:18 years of age; universal (17)

Yemen:18 years of age; universal (14)

[This message has been edited by Brendan Perez (edited July 17, 2004).]