Number of ballot propositions per decade in California

The graph and chart below show the number of propositions on the ballot in California from 1912 through 2019 by decade.

In 1912, the first citizen-initiated measures were on the ballot in California. Voters approved the establishment of an initiative and referendum process a year earlier by voting 76 percent to 24 percent in favor of Proposition 11, which was a legislatively referred constitutional amendment. Since 1912, there have been 1,271 propositions put before California voters. Of those, 428—34 percent—were put on the ballot through citizen petitions; either through the initiative process or the veto referendum process.

Overall, the approval rate for citizen initiatives from 1912 through 2019 was 36 percent. The approval rate for all propositions—including referrals and citizen-initiated measures—on the ballot between 1995 and 2019 was 57 percent.

About 74 percent of the 2010-2019 decade ballot propositions were citizen-initiated, which was 12 percentage points higher than the prior decade with the highest percentage—the 2000s with 62 percent—and more than double the average since 1912 of 34 percent. Compared to previous decades, the 2010s had fewer total ballot propositions, especially legislative referrals, than were featured on average in previous decades. The total proposition count for the 2010s was 69—about three-fifths of the decade-average since 1912.

Decade	Propositions (all)	Initiatives and Referendums	Initiatives percent
1910 - 1919	135	41	30.37%
1920 - 1929	117	46	39.32%
1930 - 1939	137	46	33.58%
1940 - 1949	96	21	21.88%
1950 - 1959	92	13	14.13%
1960 - 1969	96	9	9.38%
1970 - 1979	142	22	15.49%
1980 - 1989	139	48	34.53%
1990 - 1999	135	61	45.19%
2000 - 2009	113	70	61.95%
2010 - 2019	69	51	73.91%
2020 - 2029	13	8	61.64%
Totals:	1,284	436	33.95%
Averages:	116	39	33.7%

See also

• List of California ballot propositions