Global Political Polarization Rankings
Key Takeaways
Elections are polarization engines. Sometimes polarization returns to baseline post-election, but other times it remains elevated, with negative knock-on effects. The Netherlands is a case of the latter, with levels of extreme ideology never returning to baseline after November 2023 elections. The government collapse in June when far-right politician Geert Wilders pulled out of a fragile coalition is a case in point.
Several countries are seeing longer term upward trends in extreme political views. Austria has not seen its polarization levels return fully to baseline after its 2024 election and has seen rising levels since November of last year.
Germany has seen upticks in polarized views since its February 2025 election, and South Korea has been on a polarization upswing since mid 2024 that has accelerated since former President Yoon declared martial law in December of last year. Both countries saw increases from a very low base.
Spain has meanwhile seen a decline in polarization since late 2023, dropping it down in our rankings this quarter behind Poland. Polarization spiked in Norway in November 2024 amid a contentious abortion debate, but has since returned to baseline or even slightly below.
Despite a crackdown on the opposition and contentious elections, Turkey has seen a steady and secular decline in the share of adults expressing extreme political views for the last two years, but remains one of the most polarized countries in our survey.
Data Downloads
Political Polarization Trends
A companion quarterly chart pack showing cross-country polarization rankings, complete political ideology scales by country, and country-specific polarization trends for all markets featured in the tracker is available for Morning Consult Pro subscribers.
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Commercial Data Access
All data featured in this tracker derives from Morning Consult Political Intelligence, our flagship commercial data product measuring political attitudes in 43 countries on a daily basis. Contact us with inquiries.
Data Sources & Methodology
Data points featured in this tracker represent intra-month rollups of daily surveys. Bar chart values correspond to the latest full month of data; countries in that chart are sorted by the total share of adults expressing far-left and far-right political views. Far-left and far-right correspond to values of 1 and 7 on a seven-point ideology scale.
All data was collected through Morning Consult’s proprietary survey research capabilities. All interviews are conducted online. Data is weighted to approximate representative samples of adults in each country. Weighting parameters and target populations vary by country.
Consult our Global Political Intelligence Methodology Primer for additional details on sampling and data collection procedures, weighting and representativeness, margins of error, and question wording.
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Email [email protected] to speak with a member of the Morning Consult team.
Sonnet Frisbie is the deputy head of political intelligence and leads Morning Consult’s geopolitical risk offering for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Morning Consult, Sonnet spent over a decade at the U.S. State Department specializing in issues at the intersection of economics, commerce and political risk in Iraq, Central Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. She holds an MPP from the University of Chicago.
Follow her on Twitter @sonnetfrisbie. Interested in connecting with Sonnet to discuss her analysis or for a media engagement or speaking opportunity? Email [email protected].
