If the World Could Vote: Electoral Map of the World

In an Earlier post “Interactive Electoral Maps: 12 ways to Pick your new President” I wrote about different electoral maps that you can use to pick the next president of the United States. They were some of the best flash based graphics that a user can interact by clicking, sliding etc and changing the vote count. Today when I was on the The Huffington Post reading all the latest news about Elections 2008, I stumbled upon this good looking graphic of World Map that said “See Map Of How The World Would Vote In US Election“. This is an electoral map of the world. This graphic is a visual representation of what the world thinks about the current US elections and Who do they support, Obama or McCain.

You can hover over the countries which participated in the Polls or select a country from the drop down list on the left. You need to have Flash player installed on your machine. You will know that the graphic is very smooth when you hover over a country and click on it.

The dashboard is built based on 2 questions asked in the Poll:

1. Who would you personally rather see elected President of the United States?
2. Do you think who’s elected president of the United States make a difference to your country?

You can click on either of the questions to see the stats. The responses are either Obama, McCain or Don’t Know/Refused.

Below the dashboard you will find the list of Top 10 countries which are categorized based on their answers. The categories include Top 10 Pro-Obama Countries, Top 10 Pro-McCain Countries, Top 10 Countries for whom elections make a difference and Top 10 Countries for whom elections doesn’t make a difference.

There is a link to the Complete Results which summarizes the overall Poll:

World Citizens Prefer Obama to McCain by Nearly 4-to-1

Across 70 countries surveyed, views vary on whether the outcome matters

Gallup Polls conducted in 70 countries from May to September 2008 reveal widespread international support for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain in the U.S. presidential election. Among these nations, representing nearly half of the world’s population, 30% of citizens say they would personally rather see Obama elected president of the United States, compared with just 8% who say the same about McCain. At the same time, 62% of world citizens surveyed did not have an opinion.

World citizens are more divided over whether the outcome of the U.S. election makes a difference to their country, with 31% saying it does and 21% saying it does not. Moreover, 49% of those surveyed did not have an opinion.

Overall, citizens in Europe are the most likely to state a preference for the next president of the United States and to think the election makes a difference to their country. Citizens in Asia are the least likely to state a preference for the next president of the United States and to think the election makes a difference to their country. In individual countries, only Georgia and the Philippines prefer McCain to Obama.

Click here to see the Methodology on which the dashboard was built