Live results: Who is winning the US election?

DONALD Trump has been declared the stunning winner of the US presidential election. Here are the states he won.

DONALD Trump will be the next American president.

The election has been called in Mr Trump’s favour, completing a stunning turnaround from what all the pre-election polls suggested.

Mr Trump ran the table on all the pivotal swing states he needed to win, sweeping Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin against the odds.

You can see the tally below. A few states are still yet to report a final result. Mr Trump’s states are coloured red and Ms Clinton's are blue.

Mr Trump has definitely won the following states: Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Utah, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Hillary Clinton has won these states: Minnesota, Colorado, California, Washington, Hawaii, Virginia, New York, Vermont, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine Oregon, Nevada, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Mexico and Washington D.C.

The Democrats also fell short in the Senate and the House, leaving the Republicans in complete control of both branches of the US government.

WHAT THE EXIT POLLS SAID

The American TV networks released exit poll data before the actual results started to roll in, and there were some interesting insights.

Here are the key points:

• A whopping 62 per cent of voters made up their minds before September. Just 12 per cent decided on a candidate in the last week;

• Late deciders split their votes evenly between Ms Clinton and Mr Trump, with both candidates earning 42 per cent support;

• A majority of voters, 54 per cent, approve of Barack Obama’s job performance;

• Thirty-eight per cent of voters said their top priority was choosing a candidate who could bring change;

• The composition of the electorate appears to be 70 per cent white, 12 per cent black and 11 per cent Latino. That’s roughly in line with the electorate of 2012;

• Both candidates were seen unfavourably by voters. Ms Clinton’s disapproval rating was 54 per cent and Mr Trump’s was 61 per cent;

• A small majority, 51 per cent, said Mr Trump’s treatment of women bothered them a lot. Forty-four per cent said the same about Ms Clinton’s email scandal;

• Just 17 per cent of voters were excited by the prospect of a Clinton presidency. The equivalent figure for Mr Trump was even lower, at 13 per cent;

• Only 28 per cent of Mr Trump’s voters said they were confident their votes would be counted accurately.

HOW THE ELECTION WORKED

Technically, no one who went to the polls voted directly for a presidential candidate. Their votes will actually be used to choose a group of “electors”, who will then pick the next president on their behalf.

You’ve probably seen this map once or twice before. It shows all 50 American states, along with the number of electoral votes up for grabs in each. These electoral votes — one for each elector — are the key to every election.

This is what the electoral map looked like in 2012. Graphic: Fox News

There are 538 of them in total, divided between the states according to their population. For example California, a large state, has 55 electoral votes, while sparsely-populated Idaho has just four.

Whoever wins the popular vote in any given state claims all of that state’s electoral votes — and the first candidate to 270 electoral votes is declared president-elect. That’s the finish line.