How local are MPs? Where 10,094 MPs returned at 49 UK general elections from 1832 to 2024 were born, set against the seats they won.
Candidates love to tell voters they are local, and surveys suggest voters like hearing it. But how often have MPs actually come from the places they represent? I took every member returned at a general election since the Great Reform Act, found where each was born, and measured the distance from that birthplace to the seat. For most of the last two centuries the answer barely moved: about a quarter of MPs were born in the county they sat for. Then, after 2010, it started to climb.
The unit is an MP returned at a general election: someone who sat for three Parliaments counts three times, as they did in the House. Shares are of MPs whose birthplace I could place; how many that is changes a lot over time (section 07).
Each dot is a seat at the chosen election, coloured by how far its MP was born from it. Tap a dot to draw the line home and to see every member the seat has returned. Turn on "Lines" to see the whole House at once.
At the first reformed election in 1832, 25.9% of the MPs I can place were born in their seat's county. At every general election from then until 2005 the figure stayed between 21.1% and 33.4%. Through the Liberal collapse, the rise of Labour, universal suffrage and the arrival of women in the House, the share of MPs with local roots hardly changed.
Then it moved. From 29.6% in 2010 it rose to 32.8% in 2017, 35.7% in 2019 and 41.9% in 2024. Born within 25 km of the seat went from 28.8% to 43.4%, and the median MP's birthplace moved from 82.7 km to 35.8 km away.
Share of MPs born in their seat's county, and within 25 km of it
Every general election, 1832 to 2024. Shaded: the range the county share could take if every MP without a known birthplace were local, or none were.
The shaded band is the honest caveat. In the nineteenth century most birthplaces are missing, so the band is wide; from the 1990s it is narrow and the rise since 2010 sits well outside the old range. The 2024 point is the least certain recent one: many new MPs did not yet have a recorded birthplace when I gathered the data, so the 2024 county share could lie anywhere from 30.5% to 57.8%.
Counting every MP at every election mixes long-serving members with new ones. Counting each person once, at the first general election they won, shows when the change came in. Of new MPs first elected from 1983 to 2005, 28.4% were born within 25 km of their seat. Of those first elected from 2010 to 2019 it was 41.4%, and in 2024 47.8% (with only 57.5% of that intake placed so far).
New MPs born within 25 km of the seat they first won
Each person counted once, at their first general election win. Grey figures: the share of that intake with a known birthplace.
How far from home: all MPs by distance band
MPs with a known birthplace, by era of the election.
Labour MPs have been more often born in their seat's county than Conservative MPs in every era since Labour first won seats in numbers; against the Liberals the order swapped back and forth until 2010. From 1997 to 2024, 37.7% of Labour MPs I can place were born in their seat's county, against 18.7% of Conservatives and 31.0% of Liberal Democrats; SNP MPs were at 34.4%. Part of the gap may be geography, since the parties win different kinds of seats, and I have not adjusted for that.
The rise since 2010 is not one party's story. The Conservative share went from 12.6% (1983 to 2005) to 22.1% (2010 to 2019); Labour's from 33.5% to 41.7%, and 48.7% in 2024. The Liberal Democrat share stayed close to its long-run level. Part of the 2024 jump is about who won: Labour, the party with the most locally born MPs, took far more seats than in 2019.
MPs born in their seat's county, by party family and era
Liberal includes Whigs (to 1859) and Liberal Democrats. Only party and era groups with at least 30 placed MPs are shown.
Since 2010 the regions differ more than the parties. In the North East, 53.6% of MPs were born in their seat's county; in Scotland, 47.8% were born within 25 km of their seat. In the East of England only 14.7% were born in the county they represent, and 34.5% were born in London: the commuter belt elects people who grew up in the city next door.
MPs born in their seat's county, and born in London, by region, 2010 to 2024
Seats placed in English regions by their county; Northern Ireland counts as one county, so its figure is close to "born in Northern Ireland".
The four nations have their own stories. Until the 2000s Welsh seats had the highest county shares in Great Britain, and the share of MPs for Welsh seats born in Wales has swung, from 53.3% in 1832 to 83.3% in 1950, 64.9% in 2005 and 74.1% in 2024. Scottish seats were mostly held by Scots in 1832 (92.9%), less so in 1906 (67.6%), and by 92.3% in 2024.
In the nineteenth century London supplied more than its share of MPs: 28.2% of those I can place in 1832 were born there. Since 1992 the figure has been between 16.2% and 20.1%. About one MP in twenty was born outside the British Isles (5.7% across all elections). Of the 300 people in that group, 88 were born in continental Europe, 71 in South Asia, 67 in the Americas, 34 in Australia and New Zealand and 25 in Africa. Among those first elected before 1914, continental Europe (49) and South Asia (31) lead; among those first elected since 1983, South Asia (19) and continental Europe (17).
MPs born in London and born abroad
Share of MPs with a known birthplace, every general election.
Birthplaces are well recorded for recent MPs and poorly for early ones. I could place 30.7% of the MPs returned in 1832, 58.7% in 1950 and between 89.2% and 95.5% from 1997 to 2019. For 2024 it is 72.6%: many members elected for the first time that year have no birthplace in Wikidata or Wikipedia yet.
Share of MPs with a birthplace I could place
Every general election, 1832 to 2024.
If the MPs whose birthplace is missing were more or less local than the rest, the early figures are biased, and nothing in the data can rule that out. That is why the long-view chart shows the full range alongside the point estimate. The comparison that matters most, the rise since 2010, rests on elections where nine in ten MPs are placed.
Who. Every member returned at a UK general election from 1832 to 2024, from Wikidata: each MP's "position held" statements for the Parliaments of the United Kingdom, with the constituency and the general election they were elected at. That gives 31,737 returns of 10,094 people at 49 elections. Members who entered at by-elections are left out unless they were later returned at a general election. Party families come from the results file of the sister project Who won here? (UK Parliament and House of Commons Library data), matched to each MP by seat, election and surname; 92 returns have no party family.
Where born. Wikidata's place of birth with its coordinates for 4,291 people. Where Wikidata has none, the first linked place in the "birth place" line of the English Wikipedia infobox (398 people), or failing that the first linked place after the word "born" in the article (387 people). On a random sample of 400 MPs who do have a Wikidata birthplace, the infobox method landed within 5 km of it 96.3% of the time (297 compared) and the article-text method 94.0% (167 compared). Birthplaces recorded only as a county or a country (459 people, such as "Surrey" or "England") are too coarse for a distance and count as unknown. In all, 5,076 of 10,094 people (50.3%) have a placed birthplace.
Where the seat is. Constituencies are points, not boundaries: the constituency points of Who won here?, which use each seat's own Wikidata coordinates where they exist (1,014 of 2,326 constituency items) and otherwise its town or county. For large county divisions a point can be tens of kilometres from where most voters lived, so distances for county seats are rougher than for boroughs; the county measure is less sensitive to this.
Counties. One modern county map for every year: a fixed yardstick, not the counties MPs themselves would have named. Scottish council areas are smaller than English counties, so "same county" is a stricter test in Scotland; Northern Ireland is one unit, so it is a looser one there.
What it does not measure. Birthplace is not upbringing: someone born in a London hospital and raised in Lancashire counts as London-born. It says nothing about where MPs lived, worked or went to school before election, which is what many voters mean by local. Wikidata and Wikipedia are volunteer projects, and their coverage favours better-known MPs.
Sister projects: Who won here? maps every general election result since 1832, and Mentioned in the House counts which places MPs talk about in the Commons.