The Norwegian National Election Study of 2025 & 2029

The Norwegian National Election Studies (NNES) is an ongoing research project, the main purposes of which are to analyze elections, election results, voter behavior, and voter attitudes over time. The 2025 and 2029 NNES builds on the extensive amounts of previous research within the framework of the Election Study. It is a key goal for the NNES of 2025 and 2029 was to build on previous research and to provide continuity with respect to institutional affiliation, research design, data-collection methods, and analyses of voter behavior. Furthermore, the 2025 and 2029 NNES will renew the field of election studies in Norway and to enable innovation in research questions, methods, and designs. Specifically, researchers at the NNES aims to develop an updated model of voter behavior that is suited for modern politics. The NNES team will work with Statistics Norway in several data-collection schemes in 2025 and 2029, including the main election study. The data from previous Election Studies are available for other researchers through Sikt. Some of the main statistics from the project are also available in a simplified form for the general public at the project website www.electionstudies.no. The main publications from the NNES are books that are publishes after each election. The most recent one is called “Politikk i urolige tider. En studie av stortingsvalget 2021” [Politics in troubled times. A Study of the 2021 Storting Election] (Bergh & Haugsgjerd eds., 2023). The topics addressed in the books include, but are not limited to: The election result in an historic and comparative perspective; the election campaign, changes in public opinion, the role of the media; public opinion; voting; voter turnout; government formation. NNES researchers continue to disseminate knowledge to the wider public through media appearances. Researchers from the team are more than 1000 times in written media in the last year, in addition to a large number of TV and radio appearances.

The Norwegian National Election Study is unique both in its length and in its tradition of collecting high quality data on Norwegian voter behavior. A key strength in this project, the first iteration of which was undertaken in 1957, lies in the long time-series of data and analyses that enable historical comparisons. The first overarching goal of the NNES 2025 & 2029 is therefore to provide continuity with respect to data-collection, analyses of key topics, institutional affiliation and publication of findings. Furthermore, the NNES 2025 & 2029 aims to update our models of voter behavior to a modern time, taking into account trends that we have seen in recent years, employ new data, expand collaboration with other researchers domestically and internationally and tackle new research questions. The project will have a series of core tasks that are central to any national election study. This includes data collection, ensuring continuity with respect to previous studies, the main analyses of voter behavior and developing new models of such behavior. Dissemination of results through a book publication in Norwegian as well as through widespread participation in public forums and in the media. The NNES of 2025 & 2029 further includes five work packages. WP1 Election campaigns, will be responsible for the Norwegian National Election Campaign Study. WP2 Media studies focuses on the media's role in elections, including new information technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI). WP3 Voter turnout and social background looks at social inequalities in turnout in part through experimental or quasi-experimental studies of political mobilization. WP4 Democratic legitimacy and political trust aims to study how voters view and interact with the political institutions of democracy. WP5 Political elites and representation looks at the relationship between political elites (such as party members, politicians, representatives) and voters.