AUT Emeritus Professor of Sociology Charles Crothers has put together a document that looks at what types of people voted for different political parties.
It compares the social characteristics of electorates from the census data, as well as providing the voting data in
different ways.
The resource will be useful for researchers and journalists looking for patterns in the preliminary results for the 2020
General Election.
Emeritus Professor Crothers hopes to provide a similar examination of the final vote count and the referenda after
November 6.
Some results from the preliminary votes:
Electorates with more children tended to vote for the Labour Party, suggesting support amongst middle age adults.
The Green Party has more support in electorates with a younger population.
The National Party and especially ACT support is highest among electorates with an older population.
ACT support is high amongst electorates with more people born in New Zealand.
Green Party support is correlated with fewer people born in New Zealand.
National Party, and especially ACT support, is higher in electorates with more NZ-Europeans whereas, the reverse was
true for the Labour Party.
People in stronger Labour Party electorates were more likely to be regular smokers, whereas those with more Green Party
voters not.
The National Party and Act vote was correlated with electorates that have more married people, whereas the Labour Party
and Green Party vote wasn't.
People in electorates that voted more for the National Party and ACT were more likely to own their dwelling.
National Party and ACT voting electorates were more self- employed while Labour Party and Green Party-voting electorates
were wage-earning.
Electorates with more managers voted more for the National Party and ACT, but electorates with more professionals gave
more votes to the Green Party.
Electorates with a higher Labour Party vote had a lower NZ Socio-Economic Index (NZSEI) and those with more Green Party
votes a higher NZSEI.
The document Electorate VotingPatterns,PreliminaryResults2020can be downloaded here.
A previous analysis by Emeritus Professor Crothers looks at how New Zealanders’ attitudes to cannabis and euthanasia have changed over
time.