Electoral registrations for parliamentary and local government elections as recorded in electoral registers for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Numbers of people on local authority electoral registers.

The table shows total number of local government electors includes residential qualifiers and attainers, Peers and European Union citizens. Local government areas are unitary authorities, London boroughs and district councils in England; unitary authorities in Wales; council areas in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This table is derived from data supplied to ONS by Electoral Registration Officers and shows the number of people who on 1 December were registered to vote in the parliamentary and local elections in the UK. The residence qualification requires a person to be normally living at the address on the qualifying date, even if temporarily absent. People having more than one place of residence, such as students, may therefore be included on more than one register.

In Northern Ireland, eligibility for registration requires three month's residence within the province. Overseas electors are not resident in the United Kingdom, but must previously have been resident here and included in the electoral register (unless they were too young to register). They are registered in the same parliamentary constituency as before they went abroad. Attainer is the term used to describe a person who attains the age of 18 during the currency of the register, and is entitled to vote at an election held on or after his or her eighteenth birthday.

Annual data available on the ONS website.

The total number of people registered to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections was 4,243,800, a decrease of 1,400 (0.03%) compared with December 2021; 955,300 electors (22.5% of the total electorate) had registered for postal voting in the Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections. This represented a very small increase of 800 (0.1%) compared with December 2021; of the 4,243,800 number of people registered to vote at Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections, 76,600 (1.8% of the total electorate) were aged 16 -17; just over 181,500 qualifying foreign nationals resident in Scotland were registered to vote in Scottish Parliamentary and local government elections (4.3% of the total electorate); the number of people registered to vote in UK Parliamentary elections was 4,012,700, a decrease of 16,000 (0.4%) compared with December 2021.

The total number of people registered to vote in Scottish Parliament and local government elections was 4,245,200, an increase of 36,300 (0.9%) compared with December 2020; 954,500 electors (22.5% of the total electorate) had registered for postal voting in the Scottish Parliament and local government elections. This represented an increase of 264,100 (38.3%) compared with December 2020; of the 4,245,200 number of people registered to vote at Scottish Parliament and local government elections, 77,600 (1.8% of the total electorate) were aged 16 -17; just over 172,100 EU and other qualifying foreign nationals resident in Scotland were registered to vote in Scottish Parliament and local government elections (4.1% of the total electorate); the number of people registered to vote in UK Parliamentary elections was 4,028,700, an increase of 16,300 (0.4%) compared with December 2020.

Mid-year (30 June) estimates of the usual resident population for electoral wards in England and Wales.

Mid-year (30 June) estimates of the usual resident population for Westminster Parliamentary constituencies in England and Wales.

The DCLEAPIL results dataset covers British local government (principal authority) election results from 2006 to 2024, including candidate names, parties, party type, votes, vote share, Effective Number of Parties, and ward / council identifiers. The results dataset also includes partial data on electorate size, turnout, and by-elections. The collection includes a detailed coding for political parties, information on variables, and a READ ME file with further information. The DCLEAPIL dataset is public domain under a sharealike and public attribution license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/The dataset draws primarily from Andrew Teale’s LEAP dataset of local election results between 2006 and 2021, and that of the Democracy Club from 2019 to 2024. These two datasets were merged and checked by Jason Leman, kindly assisted by Andrew Teale of LEAP, Peter Keeling and others at Democracy Club. The Democracy Club dataset does not include votes cast for candidates in Scottish elections. Gerry Mulvaney’s data on votes cast for Scottish elections for 2022, hosted by Indy Live and itself drawing on Democracy Club candidate data, was therefore added to the dataset to increase coverage for Scottish elections. Local Government Boundary Commission data on electorate size was added to increase the coverage of turnout statistics.Main data sources for the DCLEAPIL dataset.Andrew Teale's Local Elections Archive Projecthttps://www.andrewteale.me.uk/leap/downloadsDemocracy Clubhttps://candidates.democracyclub.org.uk/data/Gerry Mulvenna - IndyLivehttps://election.indylive.radio/download/Local Government Boundary Commissionhttps://www.lgbce.org.uk/electoral-dataFor more information on the dataset construction, checking processes, and calculations, please see the READ ME file.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. To collect social, demographic, electoral and linguistic data for each of 118 British and Irish counties in the period 1851 - 1966, in order to study national development in the UK and Ireland. Main Topics: Variables County. Population: growth, proportion aged 65 and over, sex ratio, density, marriage rate, per capita income, proportion in agriculture/manufacturing/middle class/civil service, proportion who were female domestics. Proportion urban, city size, index of ethnic diversity, vote residual and income residual. Proportion voting Conservative, Labour, Liberal, Nationalist Party. Proportion Celtic speakers. Religiosity, literacy. Proportion of Church of England, non-conformists, Roman Catholics. Proportion English born, Welsh born, Scottish, Irish and French. Voting turnout, birth rate, infant mortality rate. See Hechter (AJS 79 2 Sept 1973). Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research. No information recorded Compilation or synthesis of existing material

This zip file contains the Standard Area Measurements (SAM) for the electoral areas in the United Kingdom as 31 December 2022. This includes Westminster parliamentary constituencies, Senedd constituencies and electoral regions in Wales, and Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions in Scotland. All measurements provided are ‘flat’ as they do not consider variations in relief, e.g. mountains and valleys. Measurements are given in hectares (10,000 square metres) to 2 decimal places. Four types of measurements are included: total extent (AREAEHECT), area to mean high water (coastline) (AREACHECT), area of inland water (AREAIHECT) and area to mean high water excluding area of inland water (land area) (AREALHECT). The Eurostat-recommended approach is to use the ‘land area’ measurement to compile population density figures.

This zip file contains the Standard Area Measurements (SAM) for the electoral areas in the United Kingdom as at 31 December 2019. This includes the Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies and European Electoral Regions. All measurements provided are ‘flat’ as they do not take into account variations in relief e.g. mountains and valleys. Measurements are given in hectares (10,000 square metres) to 2 decimal places. Four types of measurements are included: total extent (AREAEHECT), area to mean high water (coastline) (AREACHECT), area of inland water (AREAIHECT) and area to mean high water excluding area of inland water (land area) (AREALHECT). The Eurostat-recommended approach is to use the ‘land area’ measurement to compile population density figures.

The alternative vote (AV) referendum was a public vote held across the United Kingdom on 5 May 2011 in which the electorate voted on a proposal to introduce a new voting system. The question posed by the referendum was "At present, the UK uses the "first past the post" system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the "alternative vote" system be used instead?" The overall result for the UK was clear, with around 68 per cent of the population voting ‘No’ to AV. In London the result was closer with 60 per cent voting ‘No’, and the capital accounted for most of the areas in the UK that returned a 'Yes' majority. Results are analysed in DMAG Briefing 2011-04, and a spreadsheet of the full results is available. Data and reports for other Elections.

Total number of local government and parliamentary electors (including the number of attainers) registered to vote in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2014 and 2013.

MP Religion & Assisted Dying Dashboard

This data powers a dashboard presenting insights into the religious affiliations and Assisted Dying voting patterns of UK Members of Parliament (MPs). It can be found here:

👉 https://davidjeffery.shinyapps.io/mp-religion/.

Please cite all uses of the data.

📊 What is this dashboard?

This dashboard presents insights into the religious affiliations and Assisted Dying voting patterns of UK Members of Parliament. It combines publicly available data to support transparency and understanding of Parliament’s composition.

📂 Where does the data come from?

The data is compiled from publicly available parliamentary records and voting data. You can download it directly from the link in the header or view it in the Raw Data tab of the dashboard.

🙏 How is religion determined?

There are three steps to determining religion. An MP is classified as having a religion based on the following criteria:

1. If the MP is a member of a religiously based group, they are classified as a member of that religion.

2. If a member has publicly spoken about their religion, they are classified as a member of that religion.

3. Finally, the text an MP swore in on is used to help infer their religion.

These sources are used in order of priority. For example, Tim Farron is a member of Christians in Parliament and has spoken about his religious views. However, he did not take the oath on the Bible, but made a solemn affirmation on no text. Regardless, he is still classed as Christian.

🧾 Variable Reference

What do those variable names mean?

• Member ID – member_id – A unique numeric identifier for each MP provided by Parliament.

• Name – display_as – The full display name of the MP.

• Gender – gender – The MP’s gender.

• Party – party – The full political party name.

• Party (Simplified) – party_simple – A shortened or cleaned version of the party name.

• Religion – mp_final_relig – The MP’s classified religion based on multiple criteria outlined above.

• AD: 2nd Reading Vote – ass_suicide_2nd – The MP’s vote (Yes, No, Abstain) on the Assisted Dying Bill 2nd Reading.

• AD: 3rd Reading Vote – ass_suicide_3rd – The MP’s vote (Yes, No, Abstain) on the Assisted Dying Bill 3rd Reading.

• LGBT Status – lgbt – Whether the MP is publicly identified as LGBT (LGBT.MP).

• Ethnic Minority – ethnic_mp – Whether the MP identifies as an ethnic minority.

• Religious Group: Christian – relig_christian – MP belongs to a Christian group (1 = Yes).

• Religious Group: Muslim – relig_muslim – MP belongs to a Muslim group (1 = Yes).

• Religious Group: Jewish – relig_jewish – MP belongs to a Jewish group (1 = Yes).

• Religious Group: Sikh – relig_sikh – MP belongs to a Sikh group (1 = Yes).

• Oath Taken – mp_swear – Whether the MP took the Oath or made an Affirmation.

• Oath Book – mp_swear_book – The specific religious text (e.g., Bible, Quran) used when swearing in.

• Inferred Religion – mp_inferred_relig – The religion inferred from the swearing-in text.

• Election Outcome – elected – Whether the MP was re-elected in the most recent election.

• Majority – majority – The MP’s vote share margin.

• Constituency Type – constituency_type – Type: Borough or County.

• Claimant Rate – cen_claimant – % of constituents claiming unemployment benefits.

• % White (Census) – cen_eth_white – Proportion of white ethnicity in the constituency.

• % Christian – cen_rel_christian – Constituency Christian population from the Census.

• % Buddhist – cen_rel_buddhist – Constituency Buddhist population.

• % Hindu – cen_rel_hindu – Constituency Hindu population.

• % Jewish – cen_rel_jewish – Constituency Jewish population.

• % Muslim – cen_rel_muslim – Constituency Muslim population.

• % Sikh – cen_rel_sikh – Constituency Sikh population.

• % No Religion – cen_rel_no religion – Constituents identifying as non-religious.

• % No Qualifications – cen_qual_none – Constituents with no formal qualifications.

• % Graduates – cen_qual_grad – Constituents with degree-level education.

• % Some Disability – cen_disab_some – Constituents reporting a form of disability.

✝️ Why are Catholics separate from Christians?

Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting we bring back the Test Acts. The logic here is that more granular data is better.

When swearing in, there are versions of the Bible specific to Catholics — typically the New Jerusalem Bible or the Douay–Rheims Bible — whereas if someone just asks for “the Bible”, they are given the King James Version and could be from any Christian denomination.

It would be a shame to lose that detail, so I provide the option to break out Catholic MPs separately.

📚 Where can I find more information about swearing in and the parliamentary oath?

The Parliament website has a great guide:

👉 https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/swearingin/

👤 Who created this dashboard?

This dashboard was created by Dr David Jeffery, University of Liverpool.

Follow me on Twitter/X or Bluesky.

❓ Why did you create this dashboard?

I needed to know MPs’ religion, and the text MPs used to swear in seemed like a valid proxy. This information was held by Humanists UK and when I asked for it, they said no.

So I did what any time-starved academic would do: I collected the data myself, by hand, and decided to make it public.

The Politbarometer has been conducted since 1977 on an almost monthly basis by the Research Group for Elections (Forschungsgruppe Wahlen) for the Second German Television (ZDF). Since 1990, this database has also been available for the new German states. The survey focuses on the opinions and attitudes of the voting population in the Federal Republic on current political topics, parties, politicians, and voting behavior. From 1990 to 1995 and from 1999 onward, the Politbarometer surveys were conducted separately in the eastern and western federal states (Politbarometer East and Politbarometer West). The separate monthly surveys of a year are integrated into a cumulative data set that includes all surveys of a year and all variables of the respective year. The Politbarometer short surveys, collected with varying frequency throughout the year, are integrated into the annual cumulation starting from 2003.

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for European Electoral Regions in the United Kingdom, as at December 2018. The BFE boundaries are full resolution - extent of the realm (usually this is the Mean Low Water mark but in some cases boundaries extend beyond this to include off shore islands). Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.REST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE View Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/European_Electoral_Regions_(Dec_2018)_FEB_UK/MapServerREST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE Feature DownloadService – https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/European_Electoral_Regions_December_2018_Full_Extent_Boundaries_UK/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilitiesREST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/European_Electoral_Regions_Dec_2018_FEB_UK_2022/FeatureServer

This zip file contains the Standard Area Measurements (SAM) for the electoral areas in the United Kingdom as at 31 December 2018. This includes the Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies and European Electoral Regions. All measurements provided are ‘flat’ as they do not take into account variations in relief e.g. mountains and valleys. Measurements are given in hectares (10,000 square metres) to 2 decimal places. Four types of measurements are included: total extent (AREAEHECT), area to mean high water (coastline) (AREACHECT), area of inland water (AREAIHECT) and area to mean high water excluding area of inland water (land area) (AREALHECT). The Eurostat-recommended approach is to use the ‘land area’ measurement to compile population density figures.Click the Download button to download the files

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The project aimed to develop understanding of what participation is occurring in rural community governance in England and Wales, paying particular attention to the factors influencing the nature, type and level of participation for issues of democracy and accountability in rural governance. In order to achieve this aim, the project encompassed the following objectives: to construct a database of parish, town and community council election statistics which will provide a national picture of participation in elective community governance across rural England and Wales; to produce a descriptive representation of the nature and scale of voluntary participatory activity in rural community governance across England and Wales using ten surrogate indicators; to analyse how and why participation occurs in particular geographic settings through the use of intensive case study research to construct detailed qualitative accounts of participation in selected communities (the qualitative research is not held at the UK Data Archive); to employ findings from the above research to develop an integrated theoretical framework for the analysis of the multiple nature of participation in rural communities and its implications for wider rural governance; to employ the research findings in the context of policy initiatives to encourage participation in order to produce a series of 'best-practice' statements for use by public and voluntary sector agencies. Main Topics: The dataset for this study was compiled as part of a wider project on 'Participation, Power and Rural Community Governance in England and Wales' (see Abstract section above). It records summary details of elections to town, parish and community councils in England and Wales in the 1998-2000 electoral cycle. Election returns were obtained from electoral officers in principal local authorities, with 219 authorities supplying usable data. Information is entered in the database by parish ward, of which there are 9,716 in total. Data are held on the ratio of candidates to seats, electorate size, voter turnout, gender of candidates, political affiliation of candidates, whether any initiatives had been undertaken to encourage nominations and whether any power of responsibilities had been delegated to the council by the relevant principal authority.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in England and Wales by sex and single year of age. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

The classifications for the datasets TS009 Sex by single year of age and RM200 Sex by single year of age (detailed) are the same. However, RM200 has data available at the lower geographies of:

• Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs)
• Middle layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs)
• Electoral wards and divisions
• Westminster parliamentary constituencies

Estimates for single year of age between ages 90 and 100+ are less reliable than other ages. Estimation and adjustment at these ages was based on the age range 90+ rather than five-year age bands. Read more about this quality notice.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. Data are also available in these geographic types:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Age

A person’s age on Census Day, 21 March 2021 in England and Wales. Infants aged under 1 year are classified as 0 years of age.

Sex

This is the sex recorded by the person completing the census. The options were “Female” and “Male”.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The project aimed to develop understanding of what participation is occurring in rural community governance in England and Wales, paying particular attention to the factors influencing the nature, type and level of participation for issues of democracy and accountability in rural governance. In order to achieve this aim, the project encompassed the following objectives: