Demonstration: Electoral Atlas for UK Westminster Constituencies

This demonstration illustrates the power of delivering information graphically to present a range of electoral and political statistics. Two different interactive reports have been created for a subset of UK Westminster Constituencies using our InstantAtlas Desktop software. We have selected Scotland as a logical subset of UK constituencies. The report delivers a range of indicators (see list below) relevant to reviewing recent election results and on-going trends. It can be used for a wide range of purposes including:

  • government organisations seeking to build a stronger sense of local accountability
  • political parties looking to analyse and understand voting behaviour and trends
  • news media looking to publish live election results as they become available in an engaging form
  • voluntary campaigning bodies looking to communicate specific messages - in this case MP voting behaviour and expense budgets

Click on screenshot of simple election results map (Westminster MP Elections 2005) to open
Election Results Map Demonstration

Click on screenshot of a more analytical electoral and socio-political report to open
Political Analysis Atlas Demonstration

All reports offer a text-based tabular view for presenting the data - an example for the more sophisticated socio-political atlas.

The InstantAtlas product offers a number of different templates for delivering information of this kind - in this case we are using the Single Map template for both reports although it is highly flexible and can be tailored to the needs of different audiences. Depending on local factors such as the needs and skills of your end-user audience, political geography and electoral method, you may find other templates are more appropriate. We have other election reports using our Double Map and Area Profile templates on our Election Results pages.

InstantAtlas can produce high impact, presentation quality reports and atlases in most languages for any electoral geography (local, regional, national or international).

Details of the specific indicators used in the demonstration reports are provided below. We have used data available from public sources and provided source information. We make no guarantees on its accuracy and cannot be held liable for any actions resulting from its publication. The application should not be used for any operational purposes - it is intended to provide a demonstration of the capability of our InstantAtlas software.

The following publicly available indicators are made available in this election report:

Election Results 2005

  1. Party
  2. Majority %

    Source: Richard Kimber's Political Science Resource site

  3. Electorate % voted Conservative
  4. Electorate % voted Labour
  5. Electorate % voted Lib Dem
  6. Electorate % voted SNP
  7. Electorate % voted SSP
  8. Electorate % voted Green
  9. Electorate % voted Other

    Source: Scottish Parliament, SPICe Briefing Paper

Votes and Turn-out 2005

  1. Votes Cast
  2. Electorate Count

    Source: Scottish Parliament, SPICe Briefing Paper

  3. Turn-out %

    Source: Richard Kimber's Political Science Resource site

Voter Change 2001 to 2005

  1. Change % 2001-2005 Conservative
  2. Change % 2001-2005 Labour
  3. Change % 2001-2005 Lib-Dem
  4. Change % 2001-2005 SNP
  5. Change % 2001-2005 SSP
  6. Change % 2001-2005 Other

    Source: Scottish Parliament, SPICe Briefing Paper

MPs Expenses 2006

  1. Expenses all 2006
  2. Expenses Car
  3. Expenses Car 3rd party milage
  4. Expenses Rail
  5. Expenses Air
  6. Expenses Bicycle
  7. Expenses Other
  8. Expenses per Household
  9. Expenses per Head of Population
  10. Measure of expenses by MP attendance Note: Total expenses divided by the Attendance statistic for MP voting participation

    Source: UK Parliament, Published Member Allowances 2005

MP Voter Behaviour 2006

  1. MP Rebellions
  2. MP Attendance

    Source: The Public Whip

Deprivation Levels 2006

  1. Number of data zones in worst 20% Note: The number of 20% most deprived Data Zones for each Westminster constituency
  2. Measure of deprivation Note: The number of 20% most deprived Data Zones in each constituency divided by the total number of Data Zones in each constituency expressed as a percentage
  3. Rank of deprivation Note: A ranking (1 to 59) of all constituencies by above ‘Measure of deprivation’, 59 being the constituency ranked as most deprived (having the highest percentage of Data Zones in the worst 20% of all Data Zones)

    Source: Scottish Executive, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

Demographics 2001

  1. Number of households
  2. Total population

    Source: Scottish Executive / General Register Office for Scotland, Scotland's Census Results On-Line