2023 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 full 2023 election briefing for England [PDF].
England regional summary[PDF]
See who’s standing in your area on WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk.
Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, all 462 council seats are up for election, across 80 District Electoral Areas in 11 councils. 807 candidates have come forward to stand, representing 15 political parties plus independents.
| Party | Candidates | Electoral Areas contested |
|---|---|---|
| Sinn Féin | 162 | 86.3% |
| Democratic Unionist Party | 152 | 92.5% |
| Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | 110 | 97.5% |
| Ulster Unionist Party | 101 | 90.0% |
| Social Democratic & Labour Party | 86 | 82.5% |
| Independent | 56 | 48.8% |
| Traditional Unionist Voice | 46 | 53.8% |
| Green Party | 37 | 46.3% |
| Aontú | 19 | 23.8% |
| People Before Profit Alliance | 16 | 20.0% |
| The Workers Party | 7 | 8.8% |
| Conservative and Unionist Party | 5 | 6.3% |
| Progressive Unionist Party | 4 | 5.0% |
| Cross-Community Labour Alternative | 2 | 2.5% |
| Irish Republican Socialist Party | 2 | 2.5% |
| Socialist Party (Northern Ireland) | 2 | 2.5% |
| Total | 807 | - |
England
8,095 English council seats are up for election this year, including 38 by-elections.
A total of 25,751 candidates have been nominated to stand, representing 153 political parties, as well as 1,880 independents.
| Party | Seats contested | % Seat coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative Party |
7,530 |
93.05% |
| Labour Party |
6,232 |
77.01% |
| Liberal Democrats |
4,813 |
59.48% |
| Green Party |
3,335 |
41.21% |
| All other parties |
1,961 |
- |
| Independent Candidates |
1,880 |
- |
Uncontested seats
46 seats have been won uncontested (only one candidate was nominated for each seat), across 34 wards.
Additionally, 70 seats are guaranteed to a particular political party, because not enough opposing candidates have been nominated (for example, three blue and two red candidates in a three-seat ward guarantees one blue returned).
| Party | Uncontested wins |
|---|---|
| Conservative Party | 27 |
| Independent | 11 |
| Labour Party | 5 |
| Liberal Democrats | 2 |
| Lincolnshire Independents | 1 |
| Total | 46 |
Read the full 2023 election briefing for England [PDF].
Get the data
A full CSV download of all candidates standing on 4 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 without our network of volunteers. Every single edit helps, but you can see the edit leader board here.