Unitary Authority of Swansea elections from 1995 to 2017

Summary

A total of 46 Unitary Authority Wards held elections in Swansea between 1995 and 2017. The database holds elections for 6 separate years over the 23 year period. Swansea held whole council elections once every four years. This can create a situation where an unhappy electorate can replace an entire council in a single election. As a result, these councils can appear to be more volatile than those with partial council elections.

Participation

Average participation in Swansea over the 23 years was 38.50%. This was 1.40 percentage points lower than the average for all Unitary Authority Councils holding elections in the same year (39.90%). Turnout was higher than the average for Unitary Authority councils in 2012 when it was 0.64 percentage points higher. Turnout was lower than the average for Unitary Authority councils in 1995 when it was 4.95 percentage points lower.

The Party System

This section examines the party system in Swansea that existed in terms of number of seats won by each group in each election. In the analysis below, a party is considered to have won an election for the authority if it wins more seats than any other group. The extent to which a single party group wins all of the elections during the period is a measure of the dominance of a single party.

In terms of candidates elected, the party system in Swansea between 1995 and 2017 was completely dominated by Labour candidates. These candidates won the most seats in all of the 6 elections held.