Johann Hahlen
Präsident des Statistischen Bundesamtes
Press release - February 2, 2006
Final results of the Representative Electoral Statistics on the election to the 16th Bundestag
– Lowest voter participation among first-time and young voters
– Women cast their vote equally for SPD and CDU/CSU, while men
preferred CDU/CSU
– SPD had roughly equal success in all voter groups, CDU/CSU
success was rather unbalanced, FDP and GRÜNE achieved better
results among young voters, Die Linke. more among those aged
45 to 59 years
- Vote splitting benefitted especially the GRÜNE, FDP and Die Linke.
– SPD utilised its potential equally among the various age groups,
while the electorate of CDU/CSU included an above-average share
of older voters
At a press briefing in Berlin, the Federal Returning Officer has presented today the final results of the Representative Electoral Statistics on the 2005 Bundestag election.
The Representative Electoral Statistics, which has been compiled again for a Bundestag election for the second time since the first all-German election in 1990, allows to analyse the voting behaviour in the Bundestag election by age groups and sex as well as by the structure of voters and non-voters.
Among the results of the Representative Electoral Statistics on the Bundestag election held on 18 September 2005, the following should be emphasised:
Voter participation among the under 30 year olds was down by 1.5 percentage points to 68.8% (western Germany 69.7%, eastern Germany 65.7%) compared with the 2002 Bundestag election. The trend towards more abstention in that age group, which has been observed since 1980, continued after an interruption in the 2002 Bundestag election.
Starting with the age group of the 21 to 24 year olds, voter participation increased along with age, as was the case in former elections. Voter participation was highest in the age group of the 60 to 69 year olds (85.0%). When broken down by Länder, men aged 60 to 69 in Schleswig-Holstein showed the highest voter participation (88.0%), men aged 21 to 24 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern showed the lowest (52.9%).
Women voted just as often for the SPD as for the CDU/CSU, while men tended to prefer the CDU/CSU
For the whole of Germany, the SPD and the CDU/CSU achieved 34.2% and 35.2%, respectively, of second votes, differing by just one percentage point. Among men, CDU/CSU achieved 34.8%, that is 2.0 percentage points more than the SPD, while among women both SPD and CDU/CSU obtained 35.5%.
In terms of second votes, CDU/CSU achieved its best result (43.8%) among women aged over 60, while its worst result was that among men of the youngest age group between 18 and 24 years (26.3%). It had its best first vote result (49.0%) among men aged over 60 and its worst among women aged 18 to 24 years (31.3%).
As in the 2002 Bundestag election, the SPD obtained its best second vote result among young female voters between 18 and 24 years (38.5%) and its worst among men in the age group between 25 and 34 years (30.7%). The SPD achieved its best first vote result (42.8%) also among young female voters aged between 18 and 24 years and its worst among men aged 25 to 34 years as well as among men aged 60 and over (35.5% each).
There were sex-specific party preferences also among the smaller parties
8.8% of women and 7.4% of men cast their second vote for the GRÜNE. Both FDP and Die Linke. had a surplus of votes among men (10.7% compared with 9.0% and 9.9% compared with 7.6%, respectively).
Among men, there was a clearer preference for smaller parties
Men voted more often for smaller parties: GRÜNE, FDP, Die Linke. and the other parties obtained a total of 32.4% of second votes of men, but only 28.9% of the second votes of women.
A clear majority of voters cast their first and second vote for the same party. However, the share of vote splitting differed substantially between the voters of the individual parties.
The smaller parties, especially GRÜNE and FDP, had a surplus of second votes that was in part considerable (GRÜNE +1.3 million votes; FDP +2.4 million votes). Voters of the GRÜNE splitted most often in favour of the SPD (56.7%), while FDP voters did so to the benefit of the CDU (51.5%). Die Linke., which in the 2002 Bundestag election had a surplus of first votes of about 162 500 votes, achieved a surplus of second votes of about 354 000 votes in the 2005 Bundestag election; voters of the party Die Linke. splitted most often to the benefit of the SPD (17.3%).
Vote splitting was quite rare among voters of the CDU/CSU. When CDU voters splitted their votes, they tended to cast their second vote for the FDP (15.6%). The party benefitting from vote splitting of SPD voters was the GRÜNE (12.0%). No significant differences between men and women were observed in splitting behaviour of voters. In the former territory of the Federal Republic (including Berlin-West), splitting was practised more often than in the new Länder (including Berlin-East).
In the electorate of CDU/CSU, there was an over-proporational share of older voters. The SPD electorate however corresponded approximately to the age structure of the total electorate, as it did in 2002. In the electorate of the GRÜNE, younger and middle age groups dominated. There was an above-average share of young voters in the FDP electorate. In the party Die Linke., those aged 45 to 59 years dominated.
The above and other results of the Representative Electoral Statistics – in addition to comprehensive tables and charts – are contained in Heft 4 of the Reihe "Wahl zum 16. Deutschen Bundestag am 18. September 2005". That publication is available on the web site of the Federal Returning Officer at http://bundeswahlleiter.de and may also be obtained as a print version from book shops of from the SFG-Servicecenter, Fachverlage, Postfach 43 43, 72774 Reutlingen, tel. (+49-7071) 935350, fax (+49-7071) 935335, e-mail: destatis@s-f-g.com, order number 1051104-05900-1 at the price of EUR 18.00.
For further information please contact:
Manfred Thoma,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2012,
e-mail: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de