Introduction: What This Story Shows
This data story explores how Australians participated in the 2025 Federal Election, using official datasets from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
The analysis focuses on four key areas:
Identifying the top-performing divisions based on total votes
Understanding the use of different voting methods, especially declaration votes
Comparing average voter turnout across states
Exploring the relationship between eligible electors and total votes at the division level
Together, these insights paint a clear picture of voter engagement, preferences, and turnout patterns across the country during the election.
Top 10 Divisions by Total Votes
Key Insights:
Mayo (SA) stands out with the highest total votes among all divisions.
Queensland (QLD) occupies much of the top half, reflecting strong voter engagement across multiple divisions.
New South Wales (NSW) appears most frequently in the top 10, with 5 divisions represented — suggesting both high population density and participation.
All top 10 divisions recorded over 110,000 votes, indicating a highly engaged electorate across these regions.
Slide 3: Voting Methods by State – Focus on Declaration Votes
Story Focus: - This slide compares the popularity of voting methods (PrePoll, Postal, Absent, Provisional) across different states.
Visualization Plan: - I use a stacked bar chart or grouped dot plot to show proportions of each method per state.
Key Insights: - Victoria (VIC) recorded the highest number of declaration votes, with postal votes contributing the most.
Postal voting is the dominant method across all major states, especially in VIC and QLD.
PrePoll voting is relatively high in every state, even surpassing postal votes in the Overseas (OS) category.
Provisional votes remain the smallest share across all regions, with the highest presence in larger states like VIC and QLD.
States like ACT and NT have significantly lower declaration vote totals, reflecting smaller populations.
Average Voter Turnout by State – 2025
Key Insights - Tasmania (TAS) had the highest average turnout, indicating strong civic engagement.
Northern Territory (NT) showed the lowest turnout, suggesting potential voter accessibility or awareness challenges.
States like SA, VIC, and ACT consistently maintained turnout above 90%.
QLD and WA were slightly lower, but still within a strong participation range.
Overall, turnout remained robust across most regions, reflecting Australia’s compulsory voting system.
Eligible Electors vs Total Votes by Division
Key Insights
There is a strong positive correlation between the number of eligible electors and the total votes recorded.
Most divisions align closely with the trend line, indicating consistent voter turnout relative to the size of the electorate.
A few divisions act as outliers, with either unusually low or high turnout compared to their number of eligible electors.
This suggests that while voter engagement is generally uniform, some divisions may require further investigation or outreach efforts.
Summary of Findings
Mayo (SA) and several QLD divisions recorded the highest total votes, showing strong engagement.
Postal voting was the most common method across all states.
Turnout averaged above 90%, but NT and TAS lagged behind slightly.
There’s a strong positive link between the number of eligible electors and total votes cast.
Visual analytics helped uncover state-level patterns and highlight participation gaps for future focus.
Conclusion
Looking back at the 2025 federal election, a few key points really stood out to me:
Most divisions had really high turnout – above 90% in many cases.
Postal voting was huge this time, especially across several key states.
Some divisions and states clearly showed stronger voter participation than others.
There’s a noticeable link between how many people were eligible and how many actually voted.
These insights can actually help in planning better outreach or policy for future elections.
This analysis gave me a much better picture of how Australians are voting and where we might focus more effort next time.
Reference
- Australian Electoral Commission. (2025). House of Representatives downloads – AEC Tally Room. Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved from https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HouseDownloadsMenu-31496-Csv.htm