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The Politbarometer - in tune with the times since 1977

Since 1977, the Politbarometers have been conducted approximately monthly by the Research Group on Elections for the Second German Television. Every month, all viewers are presented with the opinions of German voters, including the famous "Sunday Question".

The Politbarometer Data
The monthly representative surveys on the attitudes of the German electorate towards parties, politicians and the current agenda are prepared and documented by GESIS and are available as annual cumulatives as well as time series.

Who is the data for?
The data are an important instrument of political opinion and attitude research and allow the investigation of opinions and attitudes of the voting population in the Federal Republic of Germany towards current events, parties and politicians over time. The data and documents are made available for download free of charge for academic research and teaching.

What formats are available?
The data and documents include all surveys and all variables of the respective year.
A time series is also available for the survey area West (old federal states). It contains a selection of variables that have been collected repeatedly since 1977.

Young researcher award

Forschungsgruppe Wahlen e.V. awards the Rudolf Wildenmann young researcher award for empirical electoral research for the first time.

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Latest data

Politbarometer annual cumulation 2022 (ZA7970)

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Time series since 1977

Time series containing 84 selected variables for the entire period from 1977 to 2022 (ZA2391).

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This cumulated data set comprises the results of all monthly polls conducted in one year. All variables used during that particular year are reflected in the data.

  • From 1990 through 1995 and since 1999 the Politbarometer surveys were conducted separately in the "New" and "Old" German States ("Politbarometer East" and "Politbarometer West" ).

  • From 2003 until now Politbarometer Short Polls, which are conducted differently often in a year, were integrated in the annual cumulation.
  • Politbarometer polls additionally designated as Election Surveys in the study overview are part of the "German elections" database.

Recent annual cumulation

The cumulative file Politbarometer 2022 (ZA7970) is the most recent Politbarometer data set.

At the moment the time series is available for the Politbarometer from 1977 (ZA2391). The data set comprises 84 selected variables for the entire period since 1977. With a total of more than 900.000 respondents and ideally over 500 survey dates an interesting product for further analysis is the result. The corresponding variable report documents the number of survey dates for each variable as well as any change of the question or answer text over the whole period.

As the data collection method of the Politbarometer switched from the initial face-to-face interview to telephone survey by midyear 1988, there is also a basis for an investigation into the methodical aspects of this change. As in some years more than twelve surveys were conducted a variable was added on request of our users. Now there is one variable that serially numbers the surveys of one year and another variable in which the surveys are coded by month of investigation.

Amongst others, the dataset contains the following topics:

  • voting intention and party preference (opinion poll)
  • voting behaviour at last Bundestag elections
  • party skalometer
  • satisfied with achievements of the federal government and achievements of the opposition parties
  • satifsfaction with democracy
  • suitable politicians in leading positions
  • respondent's interest in politics
  • self-rating on a left-right scale
  • evaluation of the economic situation in the FRG and expected further development
  • personal financial situation and expected development
  • competence of government and opposition in securing jobs, improving the economic situation in East and West, improving environmental protection and securing pensions
  • rating the reputation of the party chairmen within their parties
  • evaluation of the state of society
  • comparing the state of the German society with the one of the Western European neighbours
  • attitude towards an increased acceptance of global-political responsibility by the unified Germany
  • general attitude towards different political topics
  • profitability of the country's membership in the European Union
  • most important problems in the FRG
  • review of the current year and outlook on the coming year
  • religiousness
  • trade union membership
  • federal state and size of town
  • representative weight as well as the usual complete Politbarometer demography

Contact persons

FDZ Wahlen
Your Contact to the RDC Elections

fdz_wahlen[at]gesis•org