It is tempting to line countries up from most left-wing to most right-wing. Our data cannot do that honestly, and it is worth saying why. Each country test is built from that country's own parties and debates. A Finn who scores as left leans left of the choices in Finnish politics, and an American who scores as left leans left of American ones. Those are different yardsticks. What we can compare is the shape of each country's results: how test-takers spread out against their own national debate.
Left and right
We count someone as leaning left or right when their economic score is more than 33 points from the centre of their test, on a scale from -100 to +100. In 8 of 9 countries, more test-takers lean left than right. Austria is the exception, and even there the two sides are close enough that the difference could be chance. The lean is strongest in the United Kingdom, where 39% lean left and 14% lean right.
Two things to keep in mind. The people who choose to take a political test are not a cross-section of any country, and most of ours are under 25. And a score of zero means an even balance of answers across that test's questions, which is not the same thing as the average voter in that country.
Libertarian and authority
The social axis divides countries more than the economic one. Finland stands out: 40% of its test-takers lean toward authority and only 12% toward the libertarian side. New Zealand is close to the mirror image, with 35% libertarian and 14% authority. Overall, Finland and Sweden lean clearly toward authority, the United States and New Zealand lean clearly libertarian, and the rest are close to even.
Show the data
| Country | Results | Under 25 | Lean left | Lean right | Libertarian | Authority | Centre on both |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finland | 3,433 | 85% | 21% | 18% | 12% | 40% | 32% |
| United Kingdom | 1,413 | 66% | 39% | 14% | 23% | 22% | 29% |
| United States | 563 | 74% | 36% | 21% | 29% | 23% | 27% |
| Australia | 551 | 60% | 39% | 15% | 22% | 27% | 32% |
| Germany | 309 | 63% | 24% | 15% | 21% | 17% | 43% |
| Canada | 279 | 64% | 30% | 27% | 19% | 26% | 33% |
| Austria | 246 | 66% | 19% | 22% | 20% | 22% | 37% |
| New Zealand | 226 | 37% | 36% | 15% | 35% | 14% | 34% |
| Sweden | 173 | 42% | 20% | 14% | 13% | 28% | 47% |
Finland's result needs one caution. Most Finnish results come from people under 25, and the pattern of arrivals looks like use in classrooms. The Finnish test also scores questions on immigration, crime and the Russian border on the social axis, and those topics have been prominent in Finnish politics. Either could push the authority share up.
Who matches their own party
When people tell us which party they feel closest to, we can check whether the test's best match agrees. Rates differ a lot between countries, partly because some countries have more parties to choose between, which makes a match harder by chance alone. The marker on each bar shows the rate you would get by guessing.
Every country matches well above chance. Our party analysis looks at who the mismatched people match instead.
Men and women, country by country
One comparison is fair between countries, because it happens inside each test: the gap between men and women taking the same questions. It is widest in Finland, where men sit 28 points further right than women, and narrowest in New Zealand (7 points). The full breakdown is in our gender gap analysis.
What we do not compare
We do not rank countries by framing bias. Each test uses its own questions, and a question that is harder to word evenly in one language or one debate would raise that country's score whatever its people think. The general test asks everyone the same questions and would allow a like-for-like comparison of nationalities, but it does not yet have enough people from enough countries. When it does, we will publish that comparison.
Take your own country's test: start here.
About these figures
- Countries are shown only with at least 100 results. Smaller tests are left out until they grow.
- Shares are of everyone who took that country's test. The lean thresholds are 33 points from the centre on a scale from -100 to +100.
- Party match rates count only people who named a party that the test scores.
- This is a self-selected online sample that skews young, and it is not weighted to any population. Full detail is on the methodology page.