Press release No. 460 of 4 December 2024
WIESBADEN – If the German Bundestag is dissolved and the election to the 21st German Bundestag is held on 23 February 2025, as anticipated, at least 59.2 million Germans in the federal territory are expected to be eligible to vote, according to an estimate of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) based on the 2022 Census. Of these, 30.6 million are women and 28.6 million are men. In addition, there are also eligible German voters who live abroad permanently or most of the time, thereby increasing the total number of eligible voters. The number of eligible voters is therefore expected to be lower than in the 2021 Bundestag election, when roughly 61.2 million people were eligible to vote. The difference is mainly due to demographic change; furthermore, the current estimate also takes account of the census-related revision of the population count.
The electorate includes about 2.3 million potential first-time voters who account for 3.9% of all eligible voters. This represents all young Germans who have reached the age of majority since the last Bundestag election.
Methodological notes:
The municipalities maintain a register of the people eligible to vote in Bundestag elections. The people who are formally entitled to vote are listed in this electoral register. The electoral register is based on the residents' register which each municipality maintains. When the electoral register is compiled, eligible voters who hold German citizenship are automatically entered in the register only if they were registered with the residents' registration office on the 42nd day before election.
Eligible voters who have a new abode in the electoral area or change address after the 42nd and before the 21st day prior to the election and who register with the registration office will only be entered in the electoral register of their new place of residence upon application. Furthermore, eligible voters who are not listed in the residents’ register (for instance Germans abroad, homeless people) will be added to the electoral register if they file an application for entry in the register by the 21st day before election.
| Age from ... to ... years | Estimate, millions | Percentage of all persons eligible to vote | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| total | male | female | ||
| 1: Figures have been rounded up or down regardless of the sum total. Therefore, the figures presented may not add up precisely to the total provided. 2: People holding German citizenship who were born in the period from 27 September 2003 to 23 February 2007. | ||||
| 18 - 20 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 2.4 |
| 21 - 29 | 6.5 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 10.9 |
| 30 - 39 | 8.2 | 4.2 | 4.0 | 13.9 |
| 40 - 49 | 8.4 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 14.2 |
| 50 - 59 | 9.8 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 16.5 |
| 60 - 69 | 11.2 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 18.9 |
| 70 and over | 13.7 | 5.9 | 7.9 | 23.2 |
| Total | 59.2 | 28.6 | 30.6 | 100 |
| including: | ||||
| Persons eligible to vote for the first time2 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 3.9 |
