2022 local election data summary
Each year, Democracy Club’s amazing network of volunteers collects thousands of nomination papers published on council websites. These are manually added to our database (with a little help from our own automation) and double checked for accuracy.
Read the 2022 election briefing for England (PDF).
Read the 2022 election briefing for Scotland (PDF).
Read the 2022 election briefing for Wales (PDF).
See who’s standing in your area on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.
Election summary
6,819 council seats are scheduled for election across the UK this year: 1,226 in Scotland, 1,234 in Wales and 4,359 in England. More detail.
By-Elections
There are 53 additional councillor vacancies in England. Of these, 14 are standalone by-elections, and 39 will be held alongside scheduled elections (ie. double vacancies). This gives a total for England of 4,412, and a total of 6,872.
There are no by-elections in Scotland or Wales, as all seats are already scheduled for election.
A total of 21,070 candidates have been nominated to stand across England, Scotland and Wales.
England
Nominations Closed: 6 April
Last Revised: 27 April
Read the 2022 election briefing for England (PDF).
15,226 candidates have been nominated in England, representing 111 political parties as well as 478 independents.
| Party | Seats contested | % Seat coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative Party |
4,247 |
96.26% |
| Labour Party |
4,107 |
93.09% |
| Liberal Democrats |
3,106 |
70.39% |
| Green Party |
2,221 |
50.35% |
| All other parties |
1,067 |
- |
| Independent Candidates |
478 |
- |
Five candidates have been elected without a contest.
| Seat | Winning party |
|---|---|
| Sefton: St. Oswald |
Labour |
| Huntingdonshire: Sawtry (two seats) |
Conservative |
| Huntingdonshire: Holywell-cum-needingworth (two seats) |
Conservative |
Scotland
Nominations closed: 30 March.
Last revised: 4 April.
Read the 2022 election briefing for Scotland (PDF).
2,548 candidates have been nominated in Scotland, representing 26 political parties as well as 357 independents. The number of independent candidates has fallen by 28% as compared with the 2017 elections.
| Party | Candidates | % seats contested | % wards contested |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish National Party | 557 | 45.43% | 94.93% |
| Conservative Party | 417 | 34.01% | 93.80% |
| Labour Party | 414 | 33.77% | 85.35% |
| Liberal Democrats | 267 | 21.78% | 72.11% |
| Scottish Green Party | 239 | 19.49% | 67.32% |
| Alba | 111 | 9.05% | 31.27% |
| Scottish Family Party | 84 | 6.85% | 23.66% |
| All other parties | 102 | - | - |
| Independents | 357 | - | - |
18 candidates have been elected without a contest.
| Party | Uncontested gains |
|---|---|
| Independent |
7 |
| Conservative |
4 |
| Labour Party |
2 |
| Liberal Democrats |
2 |
| Scottish National Party |
2 |
| Scottish Green Party |
1 |
Wales
Nominations Closed: 6 April
Last Revised: 21 April
Read the 2022 election briefing for Wales (PDF).
3,296 candidates have been nominated in Wales, representing 24 political parties as well as 711 independents
| Party | Seats contested | % Seat coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Labour Party |
859 |
69.61% |
| Conservative party |
669 |
54.21% |
| Plaid Cymru |
456 |
36.95% |
| Liberal Democrats |
284 |
23.01% |
| Green Party |
115 |
9.32% |
| Plaid Cymru, Green Party, Common Ground |
70 |
5.67% |
| All other parties |
132 |
- |
| Independents |
711 |
- |
74 candidates have been elected without a contest.
| Seat | Winning party |
|---|---|
| Independent |
32 |
| Plaid Cymru |
22 |
| Conservative |
10 |
| Labour Party |
7 |
| Liberal Democrats |
3 |
| Grand Total |
74 |
Get the data
A full CSV download of all candidates standing on 5 May is available here. If you publish anything using it, please cite Democracy Club and provide a link to democracyclub.org.uk.
Our volunteers
This couldn’t have been done with our network of volunteers. Every single edit helps, but you can see the edit leader board here.