List of New South Wales state elections explained

This article provides a summary of results for elections to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, the lower house in New South Wales's bicameral state legislative body, the Parliament of New South Wales, which came into being in 1856 when New South Wales achieved responsible government. New South Wales politics were initially non-partisan, with individual Members of Parliament choosing to align either with the Government or the Opposition. This changed at the 1887 election where, for the first time, candidates were members of official political parties. The first two major parties to form were the Free Trade Party and the Protectionist Party. The 1887 election saw the 79 members of the Free Trade Party elected form the government with the 37 elected Protectionist Party members form the opposition. The next election saw the Free Trade Party retain government but with a reduced majority. The 1891 saw the Labor Party for the first time. These three parties then fought out the next two elections through to 1898. After Federation in 1901, the Free Trade Party changed their name to the Liberal Reform Party with the Protectionists becoming the Progressive Party.

The 1904 election saw a massive defeat of the Progressive government and for the first time Labor became the major opposition party. Most of the Progressive members stood as the Liberals at the next election and the party folded not long after that. Labor won an outright majority for the first time at the 1910 election and increased it further in 1913. The Liberal Reform Party became the Nationalist Party of Australia in 1917 and Labor's main opposition through to 1932 when the conservatives became the United Australia Party and then the Liberal Party in 1945.

General election dates

• 1901 New South Wales state election, held 3 July 1901
• 1904 New South Wales state election, held 6 August 1904
• 1907 New South Wales state election, held 10 September 1907
• 1910 New South Wales state election, held 14 October 1910
• 1913 New South Wales state election, held 6 December 1913
• 1917 New South Wales state election, held 24 March 1917
• 1920 New South Wales state election, held 20 March 1920
• 1922 New South Wales state election, held 25 February 1922
• 1925 New South Wales state election, held 30 May 1925
• 1927 New South Wales state election, held 8 October 1927
• 1930 New South Wales state election, held 25 October 1930
• 1932 New South Wales state election, held 11 June 1932
• 1935 New South Wales state election, held 11 May 1935
• 1938 New South Wales state election, held 26 March 1938
• 1941 New South Wales state election, held 10 May 1941
• 1944 New South Wales state election, held 27 May 1944
• 1947 New South Wales state election, held 3 May 1947
• 1950 New South Wales state election, held 17 June 1950
• 1953 New South Wales state election, held 14 February 1953
• 1956 New South Wales state election, held 3 March 1956
• 1959 New South Wales state election, held 21 March 1959
• 1962 New South Wales state election, held 3 March 1962
• 1965 New South Wales state election, held 1 May 1965
• 1968 New South Wales state election, held 24 February 1968
• 1971 New South Wales state election, held 13 February 1971
• 1973 New South Wales state election, held 17 November 1973
• 1976 New South Wales state election, held 1 May 1976
• 1978 New South Wales state election, held 7 October 1978
• 1981 New South Wales state election, held 19 September 1981
• 1984 New South Wales state election, held 24 March 1984
• 1988 New South Wales state election, held 19 March 1988
• 1991 New South Wales state election, held 25 May 1991
• 1995 New South Wales state election, held 25 March 1995
• 1999 New South Wales state election, held 27 March 1999
• 2003 New South Wales state election, held 22 March 2003
• 2007 New South Wales state election, held 24 March 2007
• 2011 New South Wales state election, held 26 March 2011
• 2015 New South Wales state election, held 28 March 2015
• 2019 New South Wales state election, held 23 March 2019
• 2023 New South Wales state election, 25 March 2023
• 2027 New South Wales state election, nn March 2027

By-election dates

See also: List of New South Wales state by-elections.

Summary of results

The table below shows the total number of seats won by the major political parties at each election. The totals of the winning party or coalition are shown in bold, while other parties in government are shown in bold italic. Full details on any election are linked via the year of the election at the start of the row.

Year		Total seats			Liberal	UAP	Nationalist	Progressive			Free Trade		DLP	Lang Labor	Greens	SFF	Independent										Other Parties
																	Ind	Lab	Lib	UAP	Nat	Prog	LR	Prot	FTP	C/N
			height="6"																												colspan="10"		colspan="2"
2023	width="3"		93	45		36							11			3		9
2019	width="3"		93	36		35							13			3	3	3
2015	width="3"		93	34		37							17			3		2
2011	width="3"		93	20		51							18			1		3
2007	width="3"		93	50	2	22							13					6
2003	width=3		93	52	3	20							12					6
1999			93	55		20							13					5
1995			99	50		29							17					3
1991			99	46		32							17					4
1988			109	43		39							20					7
1984			99	58		22							15					4
1981			98	69		14							14					2
1978			99	63		18							17					1
1976			99	50		30							18					1
1973			99	44		34							18	1				2
1971			96	45		32							17					2
1968			94	39		36							17					2
1965			94	45		31							16					1		1
1962			94	54		25							14						1
1959			94	46		29							17						2
1956			94	50		27							15					1	1
1953			94	57		22							14					1
1950			94	46		29							17					2
1947			90	52		19							15		2			2
1944			90	56		12							10		2			5		4		1
1941			90	54			14						12					4	1		5
1938			90	28			37						22					1										2	Heffron Lab.
1935			90				38						23		29
1932			90				43						23		24
1930			90	55				23					12
1927			90	40				33					13						2			2
1925			90	46				32					9					1				1						1	Protestant Lab.
1922			90	36				41					9					2										1 1	Ind. Coalitionist Democratic
1920			90	43				28					15					1				2						1	Socialist Lab.
1917			90	33				52										3	1			1
1913			90	49						28			11					1	1
1910			90	46						37								1						6
1907			90	32					5	45								4						4
1904			90	25					16	45								2						2
1901			125	24					42	37								12	4						2	4
1898			125	19							52	45						4								4	1
1895			125	18							42	58							1						2	4
1894			125	15							37	50							8						4	11
1891			141	35							52	44						1	1						4	4
1889			137								66	71
1887			124								37	79													4	4

Notes

At the 1913 election they dropped "and Reform" from their name and were known as simply as the Liberal Party.

At the 1898 election they were known as the National Federal Party.

Includes results for the Farmers and Settlers Association and the Country Party Association at the 1913 election as well for the second Progressive Party at the 1920, 1922 and 1925 elections. First contested as the Country Party at the 1927 election. At the 1981 election they were known as the National Country Party. From 1984 election onwards they been contesting as the National Party.

See also

• Timeline of Australian elections