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Czechia

5. Participation

5.2 Youth participation in representative democracy

Last update: 16 February 2026
On this page
  1. Young people as voters
  2. Young people as political representatives
On this page
  1. Young people as voters
  2. Young people as political representatives

Young people as voters

The age limit for the right to vote in all elections and referenda is set at 18 years. There is no other special legislation for any specific group.

There are no exact statistics about the turnout of young people in elections and not many studies deal with this subject in detail. Czech voting and statistical legislation do not allow the age of the voters to be collected centrally. However, thanks to the data collected through surveys it is clear that youth participation (of those aged 18-29) in elections is lower (47-52%) compared to the general population (58-64.5%).

The reasons young people give are also different from the general population: (in order of importance)

1. Holidays, away from home, free time;

2. No interest in politics, no understanding of politics;

3. Too much work.

 

Main reasons for not participating in elections in Chamber of Deputies 2013 according to age groups
  Illness, health, too old Days off, away from home, free time Too much work No interest in politics, I do not understand politics Distrust, dissatisfaction, voting does not make sense
18 - 29 years 5 45 28 38 16
30 - 39 years 11 21 22 25 20
40 - 49 years 13 26 28 18 14
50 - 59 years 13 2 16 8 22
60 years and above 58 6 6 11 28
Total 100 100 100 100 100

 

Young people as political representatives

There is no special legislation dealing with young people as members of political parties. Youth wings political parties are registered as ordinary NGOs and no major party counts more than several hundred members. The majority of these NGOs are members of the National Youth Council. 

The age limit for the right to stand as a candidate in the parliamentary elections is set at 21 years. To stand for the Senate and President, it is 40 years. For the municipal and regional elections, the limit is 18 years. There is no other special legislation for any specific group, nor are there specific provisions regarding quotas.

After the 2017 election, the average age of parliamentarians in the House of Deputies was 47.5 years, a decrease of almost 2.5 years compared to the state elections in 2010. Only 10 MPs out of 200 younger than 30 were elected in 2017, amounting to 5% of total representatives. The situation deteriorated after the elections in 2021, which marked an average age of deputies of almost 50 years, an increase of 2.25 years on average. It only slightly improved in 2025 (48,78), while in some (mostly liberal) parties young people dominated thanks to the preferential votes and jumped ahead of senior politicians.

Analyzing the data of the Czech Statistical Office about age groups and elections, we can observe some trends:

  • More young people, especially in the category of 25 - 30 years, run for the election.

  • Voters show less trust in young candidates than in the early 1990s, and in relative terms young people are elected less often than previously.  The positive trend is only by young women, who are elected more often (25 % in 2021 and 33 % in 2025, the highest share in history) but still do not reflect their equal share in society.