Bundestag election 2017

Delimitation of constituencies

The territory of the Federal Republic of Germany is currently subdivided into 299 constituencies. The breakdown of the territory into constituencies for the elections to the 19th German Bundestag is laid down in the Annex to Article 1 of the Twenty-third Law amending the Federal Elections Act (BWG) of 3 May 2016 (Federal Law Gazette I page 1062) – only available in German. It entered into force on 10 May 2016.

The need to alter the distribution of constituencies among Länder and redraw the boundaries of individual constituencies results, among others, from the provisions of Section 3 (1), first sentence, nos. 2, 3 and 5 of the Federal Elections Act. They stipulate that the number of constituencies in the individual Länder must correspond as far as possible to their share of the population. The population of a constituency should not deviate from the average population of all constituencies by more than 15 per cent in either direction. Where the deviation is greater than 25 per cent, the boundaries must be redrawn. The basis of these calculations is the German population irrespective of their age. The boundaries of municipalities, districts and towns not attached to a municipal district should be adhered to where possible when constituency boundaries are defined.

Compared with the former structure, the legislator has redrawn the boundaries of 34 constituencies for the 2017 Bundestag Election on the basis of the territory as at 29 February 2016. The changes are as follows:

Constituencies have consecutive numbers. As the number of constituencies was reduced by one in Thüringen and increased by one in Bayern, the constituency numbers of many constituencies had to change. 

Accordingly, the 299 constituencies are distributed among the 16 Länder as follows:

Land Constituency number Number of constituencies
Schleswig-Holstein 1 to 11 11
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 12 to 17 6
Hamburg 18 to 23 6
Niedersachsen 24 to 53 30
Bremen 54 and 55 2
Brandenburg 56 to 65 10
Sachsen-Anhalt 66 to 74 9
Berlin 75 to 86 12
Nordrhein-Westfalen 87 to 150 64
Sachsen 151 to 166 16
Hessen 167 to 188 22
Thüringen 189 to 196 8
Rheinland-Pfalz 197 to 211 15
Bayern 212 to 257 46
Baden-Württemberg 258 to 295 38
Saarland 296 to 299 4

 

Map of constituencies for the elections to the 19th German Bundestag

The multi-coloured “Map of constituencies for the elections to the 19th German Bundestag” presents the delimitation of constituencies which will be valid at the next Bundestag election. It shows the numbers and boundaries of all constituencies and their composition of administrative districts and towns not attached to an administrative district and, separately, the delimitation of constituencies of those large cities which are subdivided into several constituencies.

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