Election forecast · as of 23 September 2026

Election forecast: who will win the next elections?

For every upcoming election we convert the current polls into seats and run thousands of simulations to see which party ends up strongest and which majority is likely. Each page also shows how far polls were off at earlier elections with the same lead time to polling day.

Upcoming

All elections in date order

  1. Saarland state election, in 207 days
    Leading: SPD 27.0%Strongest party: SPD in 65%Majority: SPD + CDU over 99%
    Polls: as of 3 Dec 2025, 1 pollsters
  2. Schleswig-Holstein state election, in 207 days
    Leading: CDU 30.0%Strongest party: CDU in over 99%Majority: CDU + Grüne 71%
    Polls: as of 14 Jul 2026, 2 pollsters
  3. North Rhine-Westphalia state election, in 214 days
    Leading: CDU 30.5%Strongest party: CDU in over 99%Majority: CDU + AfD 96%
    Polls: as of 23 Sep 2026, 2 pollsters
  4. Bremen state election, in 249 days
    Leading: CDU 22.5%Strongest party: CDU in 65%Majority: CDU + SPD + AfD over 99%
    Polls: as of 19 Aug 2026, 2 pollsters
  5. Lower Saxony state election, in 368 days
    Leading: SPD 26.0%Strongest party: SPD in 81%Majority: SPD + CDU 70%
    Polls: as of 11 Sep 2026, 1 pollsters
  6. Bavarian state election
    Leading: CSU 38.0%Strongest party: CSU in over 99%Majority: CSU + AfD over 99%
    Polls: as of 12 Sep 2026, 1 pollsters
  7. Hesse state election
    Leading: CDU 31.0%Strongest party: CDU in over 99%Majority: CDU + AfD 99%
    Polls: as of 29 Apr 2026, 2 pollsters
  8. European election
    Leading: CDU/CSU 30.1%
    Polls: as of 8 Jun 2024, 7 pollsters
  9. Federal election
    Leading: AfD 27.9%Strongest party: AfD in over 99%Majority: AfD + CDU/CSU 89%
    Polls: as of 22 Sep 2026, 10 pollsters
  10. Brandenburg state election
    Leading: AfD 35.5%Strongest party: AfD in over 99%Majority: AfD + SPD over 99%
    Polls: as of 24 Jun 2026, 2 pollsters
  11. Saxony state election
    Leading: AfD 42.0%Strongest party: AfD in over 99%Majority: AfD + CDU over 99%
    Polls: as of 21 May 2026, 1 pollsters
  12. Thuringia state election
    Leading: AfD 40.0%Strongest party: AfD in over 99%Majority: AfD + CDU over 99%
    Polls: as of 2 Jul 2026, 1 pollsters
  13. Hamburg state election
    Leading: SPD 30.5%Strongest party: SPD in over 99%Majority: SPD + Grüne 92%
    Polls: as of 20 Jun 2026, 2 pollsters
  14. Baden-Württemberg state election
    Leading: Grüne 27.8%Strongest party: Grüne in 54%Majority: Grüne + CDU over 99%
    Polls: as of 10 Apr 2026, 4 pollsters
  15. Rhineland-Palatinate state election
    Leading: CDU 28.0%Strongest party: CDU in 86%Majority: CDU + AfD over 99%
    Polls: as of 20 Aug 2026, 1 pollsters
  16. Berlin state election
    Leading: Linke 21.4%Strongest party: Linke in 67%Majority: Linke + CDU + AfD over 99%
    Polls: as of 18 Sep 2026, 5 pollsters
  17. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state election
    Leading: AfD 36.8%Strongest party: AfD in 92%Majority: AfD + SPD over 99%
    Polls: as of 17 Sep 2026, 5 pollsters
  18. Saxony-Anhalt state election
    Leading: AfD 42.0%Strongest party: AfD in over 99%Majority: AfD + CDU over 99%
    Polls: as of 3 Sep 2026, 5 pollsters
Our analysis

How accurate are polls before an election?

Mean deviation of the polling average from the result per party, for all 38 elections since 2017, by lead time to polling day. The closer the election, the smaller the error, but even a week ahead polls are typically off by more than a point.

Accuracy of polling averages by lead time to the election
Lead timeElectionsDeviation per partyLargest deviation
7 days38± 1.6 points± 4.0 points
1 month37± 2.3 points± 5.8 points
3 months36± 2.9 points± 7.0 points
6 months34± 3.5 points± 8.0 points
1 year31± 3.9 points± 8.7 points
2 years25± 4.5 points± 9.8 points
Context

What an election forecast can do

The real forecast only arrives on election night, from the exit polls. Until then, polls show the mood of the day, and from that mood seats, coalitions and probabilities can be calculated. This projection becomes more robust the closer polling day gets.

We do not weight by pollster and do not extrapolate trends: the average is the latest poll from each pollster, averaged without weighting. The uncertainty per party comes from sampling error and from how accurately polls have historically measured that party, see Method.

Table as CSV

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