What the 2024 turnout data tells us about social elections
The results of the 2024 social elections are in, and behind the allocated seats sits a story of numbers that should interest any company preparing for 2028. Turnout, in particular, says something. Here is the data, read closely, and what it means.
The headline figure: 60% turnout
Nearly 1.4 million workers could vote at the 2024 social elections. About 842,000 did, a turnout of roughly 60%.
For a company election, 60% is still high, well above what many professional elections elsewhere achieve. But the raw figure hides a less flattering dynamic.
The trend: a decline that is confirming itself
The 2024 rate marks a decline versus 2020: roughly -6.4% for the Works Council (WC) and -6.85% for the CPPW. And 2020 was already down on 2016 and 2012.
In other words, this is not a one-off blip: turnout at social elections is eroding edition by edition. Workplace democracy is still alive, but a little less so each time. For a company preparing 2028, that is the signal to keep: without a specific effort, the default trend is downward.
The good news: young workers are rising
One indicator runs the other way. Participation by young workers under 25, historically the lowest, is rising:
- 30% in 2016
- 39% in 2020
- 42% in 2024
It is the only segment clearly on the up. The young-workers college (set up from 25 people under 25) is no longer an empty box filled out of obligation: this group is mobilising more. A lead worth following for anyone wanting to lift overall turnout.
What the figures do not yet tell us
One data point is sorely missing from the public debate: turnout by voting channel, paper versus electronic. The conditions for remote electronic voting were relaxed for 2024, but the official statistics do not directly compare rates between online and paper voting for social elections.
That is a gap, because it is exactly the question companies ask: does online voting lift turnout? International experience (Estonia in particular) suggests it does not mechanically increase it, but it prevents decline and makes voting more convenient. Absent Belgian figures by channel, that is the best available lens.
What 2024 says to anyone preparing 2028
Three takeaways emerge:
- Turnout falls by default. Changing nothing means accepting further erosion in 2028.
- Young workers are reachable. The weakest segment is also the one improving most; it responds to effort.
- The channel matters, but communication matters more. The voting mode alone is not enough; it is the organisation around the vote that makes the difference.
In short
In 2024, around 60% of the 1.4 million workers concerned voted, down about 6% on 2020, in a downward trend running since 2012. Only young workers are improving (42%). The big unknown remains turnout by channel, for lack of official statistics. For 2028, the message is clear: turnout does not hold up on its own.
To learn which concrete levers actually lift turnout, read How to boost voter turnout when participation is falling. And if you want to run a vote that mobilises, let's talk.
