HS-Gallup: SDP has lost considerable ground among young voters
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According to a poll conducted by Suomen Gallup for Helsingin Sanomat, the Social Democrats, currently in opposition, have in recent years lost substantial support among voters under the age of 30.
The Centre Party remains the largest party among younger voters.
In the space of the last four years, the SDP has dropped from 2nd place overall to 4th, with a decline of 4.6%-points from 20.7% to just 16.1%.
This puts them well behind the Centre Party (22.6%, up 0.2%), the National Coalition Party (19.8%, down 0.5%), and even the Greens, whose support has also declined by just over 1%-point to 19.0%.
The last such survey of the party support among the young was taken in 2004.
The decline of the Social Democrat support is the largest single change in the figures, which also indicate that aside from the modest gains seen by the Centrists, the biggest winners over the past few years have been among the smaller parties such as the Left Alliance (up 2.1%-points to 7.3%) and the populist True Finns, who have seen their support rise from 2.5% to 5.5%.
The study involved a telephone questionnaire poll of 2,924 individuals who were asked which party's candidate they would vote for if a general election were to be called now.
The margin of error is plus or minus 2%, and the sample includes Finns of age 18-29 from all parts of the country except the Åland Islands.
Helsingin Sanomat
