Methods and sources
How the How We Vote Atlas, Change Atlas and Find Similar Areas are built, and what the numbers can and can't tell you.
What the pages show
- Polling places (booths): the AEC's official count of ordinary votes at each polling place, for every federal election from 2019 to 2025.
- Areas: 2,417 ABS Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) areas — suburbs and towns of roughly 3,000–25,000 people — with an estimate of how the people who live there voted.
- Census profiles: 2021 Census measures for each area (age, income, education, religion, housing, birthplace).
How area results are estimated
After each election the AEC publishes a "votes by SA1" file: for every polling place, how many of its votes came from electors enrolled in each SA1 (the ABS's smallest area, about 400 people), worked out from roll mark-off. We share each polling place's actual result across those SA1s in proportion to its voters, then add SA1s up into SA2s. Postal, absent, pre-poll declaration and provisional votes are included the same way, using each division's results for those vote types, so the estimates cover almost every vote.
The key assumption is that everyone who voted at a polling place voted alike, wherever they live. That blurs differences inside a booth's catchment, especially at large pre-poll centres. The estimates add back up to the official results: national, party and division totals match the AEC's to within a few votes.
| Election | Two-party preferred | Votes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Coalition 51.5% | 15,088,616 |
| 2022 | Labor 52.1% | 15,461,379 |
| 2025 | Labor 55.2% | 16,409,748 |
Comparing elections
All elections are estimated onto the same 2021 SA2 areas, so a swing compares the same place over time even when electorate boundaries were redrawn. The AEC's 2022, 2019 files use 2016 SA1s; we convert them to 2021 SA1s with the ABS's official correspondence, which splits the few changed SA1s (about 2,070 of 57,500) by population. Areas with fewer than 300 estimated votes in a year are left blank for that year. Swings are in percentage points (later minus earlier).
Polling-place swings compare the same AEC polling place ID at both elections (93% of 2025 booths existed in 2022). Who votes at a booth can change between elections, for example after boundary changes.
Two-party preferred and party groups
Two-party preferred is the AEC's Labor-versus-Coalition count, shown as the side ahead (e.g. "Coalition 54.2% v Labor 45.8%"). Where the final contest was between other candidates (e.g. an independent), the two-candidate result is also shown for polling places. Parties are grouped as Labor; Coalition (Liberal, LNP, Nationals, Country Liberal); Greens; One Nation; Independents (including non-affiliated candidates); Others.
Polling places on the map
- Several polling places can share one venue — a pre-poll centre is listed once for each division it serves. The map draws one dot per venue with a switcher.
- Hospital and remote mobile teams, and telephone voting for blind and low-vision electors, have no location and are not mapped; their votes are still in the area estimates.
- A polling place's own SA1 and SA2 often say little about its voters. The booth panel rates each area by the share of the booth's voters who live there (High 60%+, Moderate 30–60%, Low under 30%) and also shows the profile of all its voters' home areas.
Census measures
From the ABS 2021 Census General Community Profile, by place of usual residence. Percentages leave out "not stated" answers, except qualifications (share of all people 15+). Age bands are shares of adults. Areas with fewer than 500 adults are marked as having few residents and left out of comparisons. The same 2021 Census is used for every election.
Data and reuse
- Area (SA2) estimates 2019–2025 with 2021 Census indicators (CSV)
- Column guide for the area estimates (CSV)
- Polling place (booth) results 2019, raw AEC counts (CSV)
- Polling place (booth) results 2022, raw AEC counts (CSV)
- Polling place (booth) results 2025, raw AEC counts (CSV)
You're welcome to reuse the data under CC BY 4.0; please credit Political Gadgets and the AEC and ABS.
Sources: AEC election downloads and votes-by-SA1 files; ABS ASGS Edition 3 and correspondences; ABS 2021 Census DataPacks. AEC and ABS material © Commonwealth of Australia, CC BY 4.0. Basemap © Esri, HERE, Garmin, © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Built 2 November 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.