Could Voting Help You Live Longer? This 15-Year Study Says It Might
Voting is a citizen’s privilege and fundamental right. A new study suggests that in older adults, exercising the right to suffrage may also be linked to living longer. In 2022, the American Medical Association officially recognized voting as a “social determinant of health.” In other words, voting may belong in the same broad category as education, income, housing, and social connection — factors that shape long-term health outcomes. To explore this idea, researchers examined whether older adults who voted in the 2008 presidential election were more likely to still be alive 5, 10, and 15 years later.
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Voting Could Be Good For Your Health
The study, published in The Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, followed 7,708 older adults with an average age of around 65 using data from the long-running Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Researchers compared those who voted in 2008 with those who did not, then checked mortality records in 2013, 2018, and 2023.
The researchers used verified voting records from Catalist and official death records from the National Death Index. After accounting for factors like income, education, marital status, political affiliation, volunteering, smoking, alcohol use, and baseline health, the findings remained striking: voters had a 45% lower mortality risk after five years, 37% lower risk after 10 years, and 29% lower risk after 15 years compared to non-voters.
“We were surprised to find that people who voted either in person or remotely experienced these benefits. This suggests that voting itself is more important than the method of voting or even who they voted for,” Femida Handy of the School of Social Policy & Practice and co-author of the study, said in a news release.
How someone voted did not seem to matter much. Both mail-in and in-person voting were linked to lower mortality risk. Political affiliation also did not explain the findings, nor did whether someone’s preferred candidate won or lost. Of course, the researchers emphasized that the findings show an association — not proof that voting itself directly extends life. It’s still possible that healthier people are simply more likely to vote in the first place.
Still, the connection remained even after researchers adjusted for prior health, physical limitations, socioeconomic status, civic engagement, smoking, alcohol use, and political affiliation. Interestingly, the long-term association appeared strongest among people who started out in poorer health. Fifteen years later, voting was more strongly linked to lower mortality in this group than among participants who were already healthier at baseline.
The researchers also examined voting in the 2004 and 2012 elections. The association remained strong for the 2012 election, though findings were weaker for 2004 — suggesting other social or historical factors may also influence the relationship. One important limitation: the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study mostly includes White, non-Hispanic older adults from Wisconsin, so the findings may not fully apply to more diverse populations nationwide.
Still, these findings are not unique to this study. Other research in different populations has also linked voting with a lower risk of death.
Another Finnish study found similar results, finding that non-voters had a higher risk of death than voters over the following years. In fact, the gap between voters and non-voters was even larger than the gap between people with lower and higher education levels.
“Voting, as a form of participation, is a type of social capital, which is linked to health benefits. In addition, voting may increase other forms of civic participation,” the authors of the study in a news release.
Why Might Voting Be Linked to Longer Life?
The study did not directly test why voting was associated with lower mortality risk, but researchers and psychologists point to several possible explanations.
For one, voting may reflect a sense of purpose and future orientation. Even if a single vote is unlikely to decide an election, people vote because they believe participating matters. Research consistently shows that having a sense of purpose is strongly tied to healthier aging and lower mortality risk. Voting may also strengthen feelings of agency, the belief that your voice still matters and that you can influence the world around you. That sense of control and self-efficacy has long been linked to better health and quality of life.
There’s also the social side of voting.
“Voting, as a form of participation, is a type of social capital, which is linked to health benefits. In addition, voting may increase other forms of civic participation.”
authors of the study
“We can think of voting as an expression of the self-concept,” Kevin Lanning, professor of psychology and data science at Florida Atlantic University, told the American Psychological Association. “If I’m an American, and Americans vote, then the act of voting is an expression of who I am.”
Even mail-in voting can reinforce a sense of belonging to something larger than oneself — a community, a country, or a shared future. That matters because social connectedness is deeply tied to health. Research has found that chronic social isolation carries health risks comparable to smoking roughly 15 cigarettes a day.
Voting may also overlap with broader health-promoting behaviors. People who follow through on civic responsibilities may also be more likely to engage in other protective behaviors, from attending doctor visits to following public health guidance. A 2023 international study found that people who perceived stronger social norms around protective behaviors were more likely to comply with public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers also found links with trust, concern for others, and collective responsibility — traits that may similarly encourage civic participation.
And voting is not the only form of civic engagement associated with better health. Previous research has consistently linked volunteering with lower rates of depression, cardiovascular disease, and mortality risk in older adults.
More Than Just Politics
Sure, voting is often colored by politics. But for many older adults, it may also reflect connection, purpose, identity, and engagement with the world around them, all factors closely tied to healthy aging.
So while casting a ballot is unlikely to replace exercise or vegetables anytime soon, the study suggests that staying engaged in civic life may be another meaningful way people stay connected to their communities — to the future, and perhaps even to longer life itself.
