A brief look at the size of Northern Ireland’s new constituencies ahead of the July 2024 General Election.
The General Election on 4 th May 2024 will be the first time we go to the polls the new constituency boundaries in place. Constituency boundaries were changed to make the UK’s electoral boundaries more equal in size. Each constituency must fall with the range of 69,724 – 77,062 voters due to the Uk average constituency size across 645 (not 650) constituencies is 73,393, so a 5% margin either side of this figure. Between England and Scotland 5 constituencies are exempt from this rule due to geographical reasons (Scottish Islands, Isle of Wight etc.) Northern Ireland was also granted a further 5% margin due to geographical constraints with more than half the constituencies either bordering the Republic of Ireland or the sea, however the commission did not need to use this extra leeway, opting instead to split some wards.* The boundary commission review used the electoral register from 2 nd March 2022 and since then (as of May 2024) Northern Ireland has added 55,673 voters. Some cons