Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The data collection is produced by the University of Exeter Q-Step staff and students in collaboration with the Electoral Reform Society who provided the initial coding frame. It includes the ward- and council-level data summarising the results of the 2015 local elections in England. It was collected from local council web-sites and through direct contacts with the Returning Officers where the electoral results were not publicly available. The ward-level dataset includes the electoral results for 5708 wards, their geographical identifiers and the gender of successful and unsuccessful candidates by party. The council-level data includes the electoral results for 279 local authorities merged with the ONS socio-demographic data. The data collection is unique since there has been no attempt to report the results of the 2015 local election in a single dataset. It will be of interest for political scientists, political parties and anyone interested in the statistical analysis of local election results – a topic particularly salient in the light of the forthcoming local elections in May 2016.