The 2015 general election in numbers

The election

Number of seats contested: 650

Number of candidates: 3,971, down slightly since 2010 but second highest since the war.

Number of women candidates: 1033, 26% the largest number and percentage of women candidates at a UK general election.

Proportion of women candidates by party: SNP, 38%; Green Party, 38%; Labour, 34%; Conservatives, 26%; Liberal Democrats 26%; Plaid Cymr, 25%; UKIP, 13%.

Party with largest increase in the number of candidates: The Green Party, 573 candidates up from 310 in 2010.

Party with the largest fall in the number of candidates: The BNP, 8 candidates compared to 325 in 2010.

The results

Votes  Vote Share % Seats Net Gain
 Con  11,334,576  36.9 331  +24
 Lab  9,347,304  30.4  232  -26
 SNP  1,454,436  4.7  56  +50
 LD  2,415,862  7.9  8  -49
 DUP  184,260  0.6  8  0
 SF  176,232  0.6  4  -1
 Plaid  181,704  0.6  3  0
 SDLP  99,809  0.3  3  0
 UUP  114,935  0.4  2  +2
UKIP 3,881,099 12.6 1 +1
Green 1,157,613 3.8 1 0
Others 164,822 0.5 1 0

Turnout

Turnout: 66.2%, the highest since 1997 but still the fourth lowest since 1918.

Seat with the highest turnout: Dunbartonshire East, 81.9%.

Seat with the lowest turnout: Stoke on Trent Central, 51.3%.

Average turnout in seats won by Labour: 61.8%.

Average turnout in seats won by the Conservatives: 68.7%.

Turnout was lowest in 18-24 year olds: 43%.

Turnout was highest amongst over 65s: 78%.

Spoilt ballots: 0.3%.

The Parties

Number of parties winning seats: 11

Number of seats which changed hands from 2010: 111 (Gains: 50 to the SNP; 35 Conservative, 22 Labour).

Number of independent candidates winning seats: 1, Sylvia Hermon, North Down.

Most successful party: the SNP, 95% of candidates elected, compared to 51% of Conservative candidates, 37% of Labour candidates and 1.26% of Liberal Democrats candidates, 0.16% of UKIP candidates.

Number of seats won by the SNP which it did not hold in 2010: 50.

Number of seats SNP won from Labour: 40, and 10 from Liberal Democrats.

Number of seats the SNP won from the Conservatives: 0.

Number of Conservatives’ 330 seats which are in England: 318.

Third largest party in terms of votes: UKIP 3,881,099, 1 seat

Thirds largest party in terms of seats: SNP 56 seats, 1,454,436 votes.

Number of £500 deposits lost by the Liberal Democrats: 340 out of 631 (£170,000), up from 0 in 2010.

Share of the vote & seats

Share of the vote for parties other than the Conservatives: 63.1%.

Share of the vote going to parties other than Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat: 24.9%, a record.

Share of the vote going to parties other than Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP: 20.1%.

Proportion of votes which went to losing candidates: 50%.

Share of the vote won by SNP in Scotland: 50%.

Share of seats won by SNP in Scotland: 95%.

Share of the vote won by the Conservatives in England: 40.9%.

Share of seats won by the Conservatives in England: 59.6%.

Share of the vote won by the Conservatives in Scotland: 14.9%, the lowest of any government since 1945.

Share of the vote won by the Conservatives in Wales: 27.2%, the lowest of any government since 1945.

The party with the largest share of the vote and the lowest number of seats: UKIP 12.6% of the vote, 0.15% of seats (1 seat).

Average number votes per MP elected for UKIP: 3,881,099.

Average number of votes per MP elected for the Conservatives: 34,243.

Majorities, marginal & safe seats

Conservative majority: 11, the fifth smallest majority at a general election since the war, the smallest Conservative majority at a general election since 1852.

The seat with the smallest majority: 27, Byron Davies, Conservative, Gower.

The seat with the largest majority: 34,655, George Howarth, Labour, Knowsley.

Seat won with largest share of the vote: Liverpool Walton, Lab, Steve Rotheram, 72.3%.

Seat won with the smallest share of the vote: South Belfast, Dr Aliasdair McDonnell, SDLP, 24.5%.

Number of MPs elected with more than 50% of the vote: 331.

Number of MPs elected by more than 50% of the total electorate in their constituency: 3.

Number of MPs elected with less than 30% of the total electorate in their constituency: 191.

Members

Number of women elected: 191, 29% of the House of Commons, up from 141 (22%) in 2010.

Number of BME MPs: 41, 6%, up from 27 (4%) in 2010.

Average age of MPs elected in 2015: 51.

Age of youngest MP elected: 20, Mhairi Black, SNP, Paisley and Renfrewhshire South.

Age of oldest MP elected: 84, Sir Gerald Kaufman, Lab, Manchester Gorton.

Number of MPs elected who had never been MPs before: 177 (73 Con, 50 Lab, 49 SNP, 5 others).

Number of MPs from the previous Parliament who were re-elected: 468.

Number of returning MPs who had not sat in the previous parliaments: 5.

Number of University of Lincoln graduates elected: 2, Martin Vickers (Politics, 2004), Con, Cleethorpes; Andrea Jenkyns (International Relations and Politics, 2014), Con, Morley and Outwood.

Members of the House of Lords elected: 0.

Members of the House of Lords created since the election: 59 (as of 11 November 2015).


This post draws on a number of sources, most notably: the BBC general election results page; the House of Commons Library Research Briefing on the General Election, 2015; the Electoral Reform Society paper, The 2015 General Election: a voting system in crisis by Jess Garland & Chris Terry; and the House of Commons Library Research Briefing on Women in Parliament and Government.

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