Scottish Parliament Elections: 2021
The SNP won the most seats in the Scottish Parliament in the elections on 6 May 2021. This paper provides data on voting trends and electoral turnout for constituencies, electoral regions, and for Scotland as a whole.
In the elections to the Scottish Parliament in May 2021 the Scottish National Party won the most seats (64 of 129) with 44.2% of the vote, but failed to win an overall majority. The total number of SNP MSPs elected was one more than in 2016.
The Conservatives gained the second largest share of the vote (22.8%), winning 31 seats, which was the same number as in 2016. Labour took 19.8% of the vote, which was lower than in 2016 (20.8%) and won 22 seats, 2 fewer than in 2016.The Liberal Democrats took 6.0% of the vote and lost 1 seat, finishing on 4 seats. The Green Party took 4.7% of the total vote but finished with 8 seats, 2 more than in 2016.
The average turnout was 63.3% for the constituency ballot and 63.5% for the regional ballot.
The highest constituency turnout was in Eastwood, where 76.2% of the electorate cast valid ballots. The lowest constituency turnout was in Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, where 51.5% of eligible voters participated.
Following the election, the composition of the Scottish Parliament was 71 men and 58 women. The number of women MSPs was the highest ever and was 13 more than following the previous two elections