The British Election Study is an academic project to analyse the results of British elections that has examined every

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

in the United Kingdom since 1964. The lead researchers are based at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. The first study was conducted by David Butler and Donald E. Stokes. Since then the BES has provided data to help researchers understand changing patterns of party support and election outcomes. The British Election Study (BES) is one of the longest running election studies world-wide and the longest running social science survey in the UK.

Methodology

Each wave of the study involves online surveys of around 30,000 people.

References

Demographics of the United Kingdom Elections in the United Kingdom Psephology 1964 establishments in the United Kingdom {{UK-election-stub