| Election Name: | 1962 North Rhine-Westphalia state election |
| Country: | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1958 North Rhine-Westphalia state election |
| Previous Year: | 1958 |
| Next Election: | 1966 North Rhine-Westphalia state election |
| Next Year: | 1966 |
| Seats For Election: | All 200 seats in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Majority Seats: | 101 |
| Election Date: | 8 July 1962 |
| Turnout: | 8,188,988 (73.4% 3.2pp) |
| Candidate1: | Franz Meyers |
| Party1: | Christian Democratic Union of Germany |
| Last Election1: | 104 seats, 50.5% |
| Seats1: | 96 |
| Seat Change1: | 8 |
| Popular Vote1: | 3,752,116 |
| Percentage1: | 46.4% |
| Swing1: | 4.1pp |
| Candidate2: | Heinz Kühn |
| Party2: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Last Election2: | 81 seats, 39.2% |
| Seats2: | 90 |
| Seat Change2: | 9 |
| Popular Vote2: | 3,497,179 |
| Percentage2: | 43.3% |
| Swing2: | 4.1pp |
| Candidate3: | Willi Weyer |
| Party3: | Free Democratic Party (Germany) |
| Seats3: | 14 |
| Seat Change3: | 1 |
| Popular Vote3: | 553,426 |
| Percentage3: | 6.8% |
| Swing3: | 0.3pp |
| Map Size: | 400px |
| Government | |
| Before Election: | First Meyers cabinet |
| Before Party: | CDU |
| Posttitle: | Government after election |
| After Election: | Second Meyers cabinet |
| After Party: | CDU–FDP |
The 1962 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 8 July 1962 to elect the 5th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. The outgoing government was a majority of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Minister-President Franz Meyers.
The CDU lost its majority with a decline of four percentage points to 46%, but remained the largest party by a small margin. The opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) saw a corresponding gain of four points and won 43%. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) remained steady on 7%. The CDU subsequently formed a coalition with the FDP, and Franz Meyers continued as Minister-President.
The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation and had a term of four years. 150 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and fifty then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats. Overhang seats were not compensated.
In the previous election held on 6 July 1958, the CDU won a landslide victory and took an absolute majority of both votes and seats. The SPD also achieved a swing in its favour, while the FDP and other minors parties suffered losses. The outgoing SPD-led coalition lost its majority and was replaced by a majority government of the CDU led by Franz Meyers.
| Name | Ideology | Lead candidate | 1958 result | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | |||||||
| bgcolor= | CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | Christian democracy | Franz Meyers | 50.5% | |||
| bgcolor= | SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany | Social democracy | Heinz Kühn | 39.2% | |||
| bgcolor= | FDP | Free Democratic Party | Classical liberalism | Willi Weyer | 7.1% | |||