Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release October 1, 2009
Representative electoral statistics of the 2009 European Election released
WIESBADEN – More than half of the younger voters aged between 18 and 24 years cast their vote for smaller parties in this year’s European Election in Germany. A total of 49.4% of the voters of this age group cast their vote for the CDU/CSU or the SPD. This is reported by the Federal Returning Officer based on the results of the representative electoral statistics which are now available for the European Election that was held on 7 June 2009. The results provide information on the voting behaviour of voters in the European Election in Germany in a breakdown by sex, age group and structure of voters and non-voters.
As regards the votes cast by different age groups, older voters rather clearly preferred the large parties. A share of 70.8% of the voters aged 60 and over cast their vote for the CDU/CSU or the SPD, compared to a share of 49.4% of votes cast for the same parties among the youngest group of voters aged between 18 and 24 years.
Compared to the 2004 European Election, the CDU and CSU recorded losses among all age groups. The SPD achieved slight gains among young voters aged up to 34 years, while it recorded slight losses among all other age groups. The losses of the SPD were biggest among voters aged 60 and over. The GRÜNEN, whose overall share of the vote increased slightly compared to 2004, recorded losses among the age groups in which their share of the vote had been largest, namely the groups of voters aged between 18 and 44 years. However, the GRÜNEN achieved gains among older groups of voters. DIE LINKE recorded an increase in its share of the vote that was similar among all age groups. The FDP, too, achieved gains among all age groups and, in particular, with respect to the group of voters aged between 35 and 44 years. The share of the vote of “other“ parties was 16.2% among voters aged between 18 and 24 years (2004: 12.9%); this was the biggest share the “other” parties ever achieved among an age group in the European Elections.
As is shown by the representative electoral statistics, voter participation in the 2009 European Election was 44.0% in Germany. However, the actual voter participation amounted to 43.3%. As a matter of fact, voter participation is always slightly too high in the representative electoral statistics as not all persons who had a polling card and were included in the voter participation calculation (largely postal voters) cast their vote. The highest voter participation was recorded among men aged 70 and over in western Germany (58.0%). Voter participation was lowest among women aged between 21 and 24 years in eastern Germany (29.2%).
Like in previous elections, a typical distribution of voter participation was observed in relation to the different age groups in the 2009 Election to the European Parliament. All in all, 35.2% of the youngest persons entitled to vote (aged 18 to 20) cast their vote. However, their share was bigger than that of the following two age groups (21 to 24: 30.1% and 25 to 29: 30.7%). As regards persons aged 30 and over, the following situation was observed: The older the persons entitled to vote, the more of them went to the polls. This trend was observed for all age groups up to the group of voters aged between 60 and 69 years for whom the biggest voter participation was recorded (54.0%).
A comparison of voter participation among women and men did not show significant differences. Voter participation was slightly higher among men (44.2%) compared to women (43.8%). In the former territory of the Federal Republic including Berlin-West, the proportion of persons who went to the polls was slightly higher (44.3%) than in the new Länder including Berlin-East (42.6%).
The percentages of votes cast for the SPD and the CSU did not differ between women and men (20.8% and 7.2%). However, more women (32.0%) than men (29.2%) cast their vote for the CDU. Also, the percentage of women (13.3%) who cast their vote for the GRÜNEN was larger than that of men (10.9%). And 8.7% of male voters and 6.3% of female voters cast their vote for DIE LINKE. While 12.1% of male voters cast their vote for the FDP, the relevant proportion was 9.9% among female voters.
The above and other results of the representative electoral statistics are contained in No. 4 "Wahlbeteiligung und Stimmabgabe der Männer und Frauen nach dem Alter" which is available as a free PDF download.
In a couple of days, it can also be obtained at a price of EUR 18 from booksellers or the Publication Service of the Federal Statistical Office.
At http://www.bundeswahlleiter.de/de/europawahlen/EU_BUND_09/veroeffentlichungen/ ,an analysis of the main results of the representative electoral statistics including graphs and charts can be accessed soon.
For further information please contact:
Karina Schorn,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2317,
e-mail: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de