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UK Parliamentary Constituency and Ward Maps

Council data: sources, dates and methods

A map, a seat total and an election result can describe different dates. This guide explains how the council pages keep those differences visible.

Source review: 19 October 2026. Prepared by ElectionMaps.

What the pages cover

The register contains 361 district, borough, unitary and equivalent council areas, plus 21 English county councils. These are the May 2026 ONS areas. A county overlaps its districts. Parish councils, combined authorities and shadow councils are outside this register.

The SQL imports create a separate council reporting dataset. Existing ward and constituency results are not used to calculate council seat totals. This prevents duplicated or unmatched legacy result records from changing the council figures.

How councils and results are matched

Official council codes take priority. Where a source has only a council name, the importer uses an exact normalised name or an explicit spelling mapping. It does not use a nearest-name match. Unknown and abolished authorities are listed in the local import report.

Historical election records retain their area names and codes. The Barnsley and Sheffield code changes are mapped explicitly for election records, with the original council code retained. Statistical records are not moved across these changed boundaries. Ambiguous same-name seat records are excluded from the history.

Coverage by dataset

DatasetDatesImportant limit
Council and ward mapsMay 2026Northern Ireland wards are statistical areas. They are not the DEAs used to elect councillors.
Council seat archive1973–2026, where matchedAnnual snapshots. Older names and party categories are not a constant-boundary series. “Other” is not one group.
Named councillorsPost-May 2026 archiveNot a live member register. The source file was verified against the public 2026 download.
England and Wales resultsSupplied 2021–2025 workbooksCoverage differs by year and council. A partial election does not fill every seat.
Scotland results2022First preferences and declared winners. Full STV transfer rounds are not included.
Northern Ireland results2023DEA turnout only. Candidate results were not supplied.
Candidate lists2026, downloaded 19 OctoberNo votes or winner flags. Future lists can be incomplete. Cancelled polls are excluded.
PopulationMid-2025; history from 2011Residents are not registered electors. Historical totals use the source’s stated geography.
Census2021; Scotland 2022Dates, denominators and categories differ. Parent categories overlap their subcategories.
DeprivationEngland and Wales 2025National measures cannot be ranked against each other. A neighbourhood count is not a count of people in poverty.
Council spending2017–18 to 2025–26Submitted English outturn returns. Cash terms, in £ thousands. These are not budgets.
Historic GDP1998–2019The supplied 2021 release is an archive. These are not current local economy estimates.
Council taxEngland 2026–27A full-area Band D average differs from the council-only charge and a county precept.

How to read results and missing values

In a multi-member election, a voter can cast more than one candidate vote. The sum of candidate votes is not turnout. We show the source turnout or calculate ballots divided by electorate where both measures are supplied. We do not average ward turnout percentages into a council figure.

In an STV contest, first preferences do not establish all winners. We show the source’s declared elected status. A blank vote value stays unavailable. It is never converted to zero. A candidate list without an elected field is kept separate from the result tables.

Seat totals are checked against the party columns. If they do not agree, the page shows the discrepancy and does not calculate a majority. A seat majority is different from the administration: a coalition or minority administration requires separate evidence.

Downloads and corrections

Council CSV downloads include the source URL and licence. Each download keeps the reporting period and unit. Boundary downloads include the official area codes. Generalised maps are suitable for display; use the original ONS product when detailed boundary precision matters.

The source list below links to the original publishers. Downloaded copies remain unchanged. For a correction, send the council code, table name, year and a link to the source through our contact page.

Source register