Men outnumber women two‑to‑one on UK May ballots, David eclipses Sarah

*TL;DR Men account for two‑thirds of all candidates in the May elections; the most common female name, Sarah, appears only once in the top 20, while David tops the list with 516 entries.*

Context Local, mayoral and devolved elections across the UK on 7 May feature a stark gender gap. No party reaches gender parity, and women remain a minority on every ballot.

Key Facts - Across the three election types, 34% of candidates are women and 66% are men. The imbalance holds in England’s local contests, the six mayoral races, the Welsh Senedd and the Scottish Parliament elections. - The 20 most common first names among candidates are all male except for Sarah at number 20. Voters are almost four times more likely to see a David than a Sarah, with 516 Davids, 453 Johns, 385 Pauls and only 137 Sarahs. - Party breakdown shows Labour closest to parity at 42% female candidates, Greens at 41%, Liberal Democrats at 33% and Conservatives lower. Reform UK fields the fewest women in England’s local elections at 23%. - Analysis of 26,813 candidates assigned gender by first name finds 17,687 male‑named and 9,028 female‑named candidates.

What It Means The dominance of male candidates means women’s perspectives on issues such as social care, housing and local services risk being under‑represented in councils and assemblies. Campaign groups warn that the stagnant gender balance, unchanged over five years, could limit policy diversity and voter engagement. As the electorate heads to the polls, the gender gap will be a key metric to watch in post‑election assessments and future candidate recruitment drives.