The polls are closing across the USA, but we may be a long way off knowing who has won the US election, and whether Trump or Biden will be President for the next four years

It’s a nail-bitingly close race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, with key swing states yet to declare their results.

The world is watching in anticipation – but we’re going to have to be patient.

With an increase in mail-in ballots and early voting this year, it could take a long time for all the votes to be counted, and for all the states to declare a winner.

Here’s when we might have a definitive result, and know who will be the next President of the United States:

It is likely to take longer this year because of the huge amount of mail-in ballots. These must go through stringent verification, and so they take longer to count.