Electoral districts of South Australia


Since 1970, the South Australian House of Assembly — the lower house of the Parliament of South Australia — has consisted of 47 single-member electoral districts consisting of approximately the same number of enrolled voters. The district boundaries are regulated by the State Electoral Office, according to the requirements of the South Australian Constitution and are subject to mandatory redistributions by the South Australian Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission in order to respond to changing demographics.

Boundary adjustments

Electoral boundaries are adjusted after each election. The number of electors in each district must be within 10% of the average at the time of the redistribution order. Other issues that may be considered include economic, social and regional communities of interest. From 1990 to 2018, it was also a requirement that each redistribution attempt to ensure that the party that obtains 50% or more of the overall vote at a general election would be able to form a government; this requirement has since been repealed.
Election1970197319751977197919821985198919931997200220062010201420182022
Govt[Australian Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch)|Labor Party (South Australian Branch)|Labor]LaborLaborLaborLiberalLaborLaborLaborLiberalLiberalLaborLaborLaborLaborLiberalLabor
# of seats27262327242427223723232826232527
% of seats57.455.348.957.451.151.157.446.878.748.948.959.655.348.953.257.4
% of vote53.354.549.253.455.050.953.248.161.051.549.156.848.447.051.9454.59

While South Australia's total population exceeds 1.8 million, Adelaide's population exceeds 1.4 million − uniquely highly centralised, over 78% of the state's population resides in the Greater Adelaide metropolitan area and has 72% of seats alongside a lack of comparatively sized rural population centres, therefore the metropolitan area is crucial in deciding election outcomes. At the 2014 election for example, although the statewide two-party vote was 47.0% Labor vs. 53.0% Liberal, the metropolitan area recorded a 2PP of 51.5% Labor v 48.5% Liberal.

List of the current 47 electoral districts

Numbers of electorates and members

From 1857 to 1933, the number of districts varied between 12 and 27. Each district returned from 1-6 members.
Since 1938, the South Australian House of Assembly has had single-member electoral districts.
From 1938 to 1968 there were 39 districts. Since 1970 there have been 47 electoral districts.
ParliamentsYears electedDistrictsMembers
1, 21857, 18601736
3, 4, 5, 6, 71862, 1865, 1868, 1870, 18711836
8, 9, 101875, 1878, 18812246
11, 121884, 18872652
13, 14, 15, 161890, 1893, 1896, 18992754
17, 18, 19, 201902, 1905, 1906, 19101342
2119121240
22, 23, 24, 25, 26,
27, 28
1915, 1918, 1921, 1924, 1927,
1930, 1933
1946
29, 30, 31, 32, 33,
34, 35, 36, 37, 38,
39
1938, 1941, 1944, 1947, 1950,
1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1965,
1968
3939
40, 41, 42, 43, 44,
45, 46, 47, 48, 49,
50, 51, 52, 53, 54,
55
1970, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979,
1982, 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997,
2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018,
2022
4747

Electoral districts

This table gives the number of members returned by each electoral district at each election.

Abolished electoral districts

These electoral districts no longer exist: