The General Election In 32 Somewhat Surprising Numbers

There are more male MPs right now than there have been female MPs in history.

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1.

It was 49.1 million in 2010, but the population has gone up by a bit more than a million since then.

2.

That's according to the Electoral Commission.

3.

Assuming roughly the same turnout as in 2010.

4.

According to British Future.

5.

"Only 41 per cent – around 1,350,000 people – say they’ll definitely cast their ballot next year, which leaves two million young people who will not vote at all," says British Future.

6.

If we take the World Bank's crude death rate of nine people per 1,000 per year, more than 2 million people eligible to vote on Thursday will have died by 2020.

7.

If we assume most of those last-time voters are older, at least: 75% of the over-60s vote.

8.

People born on the day Blair moved into Downing Street became eligible to vote on 1 May 2015. Based on a 1997 population of 58 million and the standard UK birth rate, there are about 13,700 people who have had their 18th birthday in the week since 1 May.

9.

Going by the British Future estimate above.

10.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed in 1801 by the Acts of Union; the following year saw the first general election in the newly created kingdom.

11.

The first in which women were able to vote took place was in 1918; for the next four, only women over 30 could vote, while men could vote from 18.

12.

The first Tory PM was Henry Addington, the very first prime minister of the United Kingdom. In the 1830s, the Tories started to become known as the Conservative party. (We're saying a party won the election if they had the most MPs as a result – even if not necessarily a majority.)

13.

The Liberal party (and its successor, the Liberal Democrats) grew out of the Whig tradition of liberalism and freedom of dissent.

14.

The first Labour PM was Ramsay MacDonald in 1923.

15.

Margaret Thatcher, elected in 1979.

16.

17.

From a UK population of 64.1 million and 650 constituencies. The average constituency has about 77,000 potential voters.

18.

That's Ross, Skye and Lochaber, currently represented by Charles Kennedy, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats.

19.

Islington North, represented by Labour's Jeremy Corbyn.

20.

That's the most ever.

21.

That's less than the total of male MPs sitting right now, and less than 8% of the total number of MPs throughout history.

22.

23.

She didn’t take her seat because she was standing for Sinn Féin; the first female MP to take her seat was Nancy Astor in 1919.

24.

Labour's Margaret Bondfield.

25.

That was Labour's Stephen Twigg. In 1974, an already sitting MP, Labour’s Maureen Colquhoun, came out as lesbian, but lost her seat at the next election; Labour’s Chris Smith came out after his election in 1984; he kept his seat until he stood down in 2005 and became Lord Smith of Finsbury.

26.

Known as “the Grand Old Man of India”.

27.

They were Paul Boateng, Bernie Grant, and Diane Abbott. Keith Vaz, the first Asian MP elected since 1922, joined the same year. All represent or represented Labour.

28.

James Dickson, elected to Dungannon on 25 June 1880.

29.

Including 10 between 2005 and 2010 and six since 2010.

30.

That's 0.28% of the total cast.

31.

If we assume that the 3,600 that will be used across the five Edinburgh constituencies is representative of the rest of the country.

32.

Dimbleby has presented the Beeb's coverage of every election since 1979. Assuming that the 10pm-to-7am stint he's doing this time is representative, that would be 81 hours. However, last time, because of the chaos of a hung parliament, he ended up doing a heroic 17 hour, 45 minute shift, leading to a campaign to Let Dimbleby Sleep.