The biggest party per constituency 2018

These are all the constituencies as dots on a map of Sweden. The color shows which party received the most votes in that constituency.

The Social Democrats are the largest party in most constituencies, 65% of them. The Moderate party is the largest in 22%, followed by the Swedish Democrats in 11% of the constituencies.

The Left party, The Social Democrats, The Green party, The Centre party, The Liberals, The Moderates, The Christian Democratic party, The Swedish Democrats

The constituencies are drawn to have about the same number of residents. There are about 6,000 constituencies and approximately 1,250 people in each one. Sweden’s population is concentrated to bigger cities, so it is hard to see all of the constituencies on a regular map.

To make things easier to look at we will transform the map, so heads up!

Did you follow what happened? We are still looking at Sweden, but we’ve reshaped it a bit to be able to take a closer look. The clusters of light blue dots are the major cities in Sweden, where The Moderates are often the biggest party.

The Swedish Democrats are strongest in southern Sweden but can be found as the largest party all across the country, with the exception of the northernmost parts. The Social Democrats are relatively evenly distributed in the rest of the country.

Biggest party 2014

Did you notice that some of the dots disappeared and some new ones were added? That’s because the constituencies are redrawn in between elections to adjust to the population changes.

We can clearly see that The Swedish Democrats were the largest party in significantly fewer constituencies in 2014, 2% . The Moderates was the largest party in 30% and The Social Democrats in about the same number as now, 67%.

Sweden as a grid

Now let’s put all of the constituencies in a big box, where every little square is a constituency. At the moment they are ordered by which party was the largest in the most constituencies in 2014 - the biggest party is at the bottom and the parties which won the fewest are at the top. Let’s look at a reminder of the parties’ colors, the grey being all the other parties than the ones in The Swedish Parliament.

The Left party, The Social Democrats, The Green party, The Centre party, The Liberals, The Moderates, The Christian Democratic party, The Swedish Democrats

Here we see even more clearly that The Social Democrats were the largest party in most of the constituencies, winning about 67% of them in 2014. The Moderates were largest in30% and The Swedish Democrats in 2%.

So what does it look like know, with the result of this year’s election? He who scrolls, knows…

The Social Democrats are still the largest party in the most constituencies, but have lost the top position in some of them. They are now the largest party in 65% of the constituencies.

The Moderates lost even more top positions but are still the largest in 22% .

The Swedish Democrats won new ground and are now the largest party in 11% of the constituencies.

The second largest party

The Swedish Democrats are the second largest in 36% of constituencies, in 2014 the corresponding number was 21%.

The Moderates are second largest in 27% and have thus lost a number of second places since the 2014 election when the corresponding number was 40%.

The Social Democrats have also lost a handful of second place constituencies, while The Left Party have gained. The Left Party is now the second largest in 8% of constituencies, doubling their share since 2014.

The order of the constituency-squares has now changed. The constituencies are now sorted by income, with the highest median income at the top. The colors still represent the largest party in the constituency. We can see a clear correlation between high income and The Moderates being the largest party. That correlation was even clearer in 2014.

The squares are now ordered by how densely populated the constituencies are, so the constituencies at the top have a bigger population in a smaller area than the ones at the bottom. One can see that The Left Party does especially well in densely populated urban constituencies, while the Swedish Democrats and The Centre Party are more popular in sparsely populated rural areas.

Now one final scroll that leads you to the most fun part - a tool that lets you explore all the parts of this story (and some more) on your own. What correlations can you find?

Explore or your own
Use this tool to create your own visualization. Choose the election year, coloring (largest, second largest, third largest party) and the type of map or demographic view you want. Enjoy!