National Election Dates and Timing Changes 1945-2023

Covering 3,127 legislative and presidential elections in 148 countries from 1945 to 2023. It provides detailed information on election timing, including the actual election date, the number of days an election was accelerated or delayed from the scheduled date, and the reasons for timing changes.

Use Cases

• Analyze the frequency and magnitude of election delays or accelerations across different regime types using the recorded date and scheduled date offset.
• Model the relationship between the identified reasons for timing changes and subsequent political outcomes.
• Compare election timing patterns between legislative and presidential elections across 148 countries.

Strengths

• Covers a global scope of 148 countries.
• Includes 3,127 election records spanning 78 years from 1945 to 2023.
• Provides specific data on election timing changes, including reasons for changes.

Limitations

• The dataset's completeness for all 148 countries across the entire time period may be uneven.
• Relies on accurate historical reporting of scheduled and actual election dates, which may be inconsistent for some regimes.
• The classification of regime types (autocracy/democracy) may be subject to methodological debate.

Provenance

Source

Masaaki Higashijima, Naoki Shimizu, Hidekuni Washida, and Yuki Yanai (2025) Election Timing across Autocracy and Democracy (ETAD) dataset.

Collection Method

Compiled by researchers, details unspecified in provided input.

Time Range

1945 to 2023

Freshness

Data covers up to 2023, with metadata last updated in February 2026.

Geography

148 countries globally