Trump or Clinton: how would other countries have voted?

Take a moment to imagine that the US election was not decided exclusively by American voters, but was a global election open to every country on the planet.

Which candidate would be stepping into the White House? Who would be tweeting from @POTUS?

A YouGov poll conducted last month asked 20,000 people in 19 different nations whom they would rather have as the next president of the United States: Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.

It found that, overwhelmingly, America’s next president would have been female: Clinton would have walked into the Oval Office, with former president Bill Clinton now in the supporting role.

Who voted what?

Still reeling from their own shock result (the Brexit vote), the British were significantly behind Clinton, with 65% saying they would have voted for her. Of the remaining 35% only 11% would have voted Trump, the rest were undecided.

But Clinton had the highest backing in the Nordic regions, with levels of support ranging from 72% in Norway to a high of 81% in Denmark, and relatively few undecided.

Other European countries weren’t far behind, almost three quarters of Germans (72%) thought Clinton would make a better president, while 64% of the French agreed.

Where did Trump have the most support?

The real election result is reflected in the results of the survey, which showed the highest support for Trump in the US, at 39%, more than any other country.

One-fifth of those in Thailand and India were also in favour of a Trump presidency, but with far less support he has in America. In India, more than two thirds of those surveyed would support Clinton, while 15% didn’t know who they would vote for.

Thailand was one of the countries with the most people unsure who they would vote for, with 35% saying so. Malaysia and Saudi Arabia were even more uncertain, with 39% and 46% saying they didn’t know.

Australia, Hong Kong and the Philippines were strongly in favour of Clinton, registering between 60 and 65% support.

Where does Russia stand?

Although Russia was not included in this survey, in an earlier piece of research, also by YouGov, the country was the leading supporter of Trump. YouGov surveyed 20,000 adults in every G20 country and found that Russia was the only nation that preferred Trump.

And by a long way. Trump beat Clinton by 21 points in Russia, while she had a lead of more than 21 points over Trump in 15 other countries.

Of these countries, China was the least supportive of Clinton, who led by only 12 points.