A day or so ago, it was reported that the number of registered voters in Gambia, as published by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) was around 900,000. This set off a fire storm of questions on the veracity of this figure. The numbers reported by the U.S. Population Reference Bureau might help put the reported number of registered voters in Gambia into perspective:
- Go to the U.S. Population Reference Bureau website at:
- http://www.prb.org/DataFinder/Geography/Data.aspx?loc=261
- Click on “DataFinder.”
- You will see “Search hundreds of indicators, thousands of locations, and easily create custom reports to print, download, and share.”
- Under “Profiles” and “Select a location and create custom table” and “International,” click “country and click on “Gambia.”
- You will see “Highlights,” including, “Contraceptive Use Among Married Women Ages 15-49, by Method Type,” “GNI PPP Per Capita (US$),” etc.1
- One of the highlights shown is ”Population Mid-2015.”
- According to this highlight, the population of the Gambia by mid 2015 stood at 2,021,893.
- Another one of the highlights is “Population Ages Less Than 15.”For this measure, it is indicated that Gambians Less Than 15 years old constitute 46 percent of the total population.
- This means the total number of Gambians under 15 years old in 2015 was about 930,071.
- Multiply the total number of Gambians in 2015 (2,021,893) by 46%.
- 2,021,893*0.46=78.
- It also means the total number of Gambians 15 years or older in 2015 was about 1,091,822.
2,021,893-930,071=1,091,822.
- Assuming the voting age in Gambia of 18 years old, this also means at least 3 percent of those 15 years or older are not elligible to vote.
- A total of 32,754.66 Gambians (multiply total population 15 years and above by 0.03).
- 1,091,822*.03=32754.66.
- This means the total number of elligible voters in Gambia, at least by 2015, stood at 1,059,067.
1,091,822-32,755=1,059,067.
- Extrapolating from all of these numbers, the conclusion is that almost everyone in Gambia 18 years or older is registered to vote (about 84.98 percent of elligible voters are registered to vote).2 That is, if you go by the reported IEC number of 900,000 (900,000/1,059,067=0.8498).
- Only 159,067 Gambian elligible voters are not registered to vote.
- 1,059,067-900,000=159,067.
Note 1: Since figures are for 2015, it is expected that these numbers have changed slightly, most likely in the upward direction. In other words, slightly more Gambians have become “elligible voters,” and some percentage of these may have registered to vote.
Note 2:
Total number of Americans eligible to vote | 218,959,000 |
Total number of Americans registered to vote | 146,311,000 |
Total number of Americans who voted in the 2012 Presidential election | 126,144,000 |
Percent of Americans who voted in the 2012 Presidential election | 57.5 % |
Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/voting-statistics/.
*The U.S. population stands around 321,420,000. With the number of elligible voters of 146,311,000 (see the above table), this means about 46% of the population was elligible to vote. And, of those elligible to vote, only 67% were actually registered to vote. Compare this with the 84.98 percent shown above for Gambia.
By Mamadi Corra