Universal suffrage

Universal suffrage (also general suffrage or common suffrage) consists of the extension of suffrage, or the right to vote, to all adults, without distinction as to race, sex, belief or social status.

Universal suffrage in the world

States have granted (and revoked) universal suffrage at various times:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(in chronological order)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• New Jersey -- 1776 – 1807 (property requirement; but enforcement disputed)
• New Zealand -- 1893 (although certain inequalities with Maori votes persisted)
• South Australia -- 1894
• Grand Duchy of Finland -- 1906 (Finland became independent in 1917)
• Norway -- 1913
• Denmark -- 1915 (with Iceland)
• Russia -- 1917
• Canada -- 1918 (last province to enact women's suffrage was Quebec in 1940)
• Estonia -- 1918
• Ireland -- 1918
• After the Central Powers' defeat in World War I
• Austria -- 1918
• Czechoslovakia - 1918
• Germany -- 1918
• Hungary -- 1918
• Poland -- 1919
• Luxembourg - 1919
• The Netherlands - 1919
• United States -- 1920 (though unenforced with regards to African Americans in the South until 1965)
• Sweden -- 1921
• Lithuania -- 1922
• Romania -- 1923
• United Kingdom -- 1928
• Spain -- 1931
• Turkey -- 1934
• France -- 1944
• Italy -- 1945
• Japan -- 1945
• Israel -- 1948
• Belgium -- 1948
• India -- 1950 (as part of its constitution)
• Argentina -- 1951
• Greece -- 1952
• Malaysia -- 1955 (The victory of Union Party convinces the British to grant Malaysia's Independence in 1957)
• Australia -- 1962 (previously not granted to Aborigines at the federal level)
• Portugal -- 1976
• Liechtenstein -- 1984
• Switzerland -- 1990
• South Africa -- 1994