The Australian Electoral Commission revealed earlier that enrolment of 18-year-olds was up by 20 per cent when the rolls closed for the 2016 federal election.

The number of voters under 25 now sits at 1.66 million, an addition of 90,000. 

A Youth Action and Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth survey, released this week, questioned 3400 people from across the nation to secure the data. 

About 62 per cent of people surveyed ranked education as an “extremely important” federal issue, followed by health with votes from 53 per cent of people and environment and social justice, both with 51 per cent. 

Tasmania University Union education president Simon Burnett said he was happy to see so many young people had enrolled to vote in the 2016 election. 

“We’d expect education to be a priority, for young people the level and accessibility of the education that they get is going to be a huge determining factor in the rest of their lives,” Mr Burnett said. 

National Tertiary Education Union national president Jeanie Rea said parties should treat young people seriously in the leadup to the election. 

“It is not surprising that young people nominate education as a top issue, with respondents indicating they see it as the basis for social mobility, a good life, access to jobs and as important to the success of the community and the nation,” Ms Rea said. 

“Access to education, closely linked with funding also proved to be a major issue, as did equity across all levels of education.

“Other key concerns included rural and remote learning options, resources available to schools, teacher quality, equity between private and public systems, current funding levels and worries about costs, including deregulated university fees.”