electionstracker

Australia 1949 federal election

What was the result of the 1949 federal election in Australia?

Liberal Party of Australia won 55 of 123 seats with 39.3% of the vote. 95.9% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Australia
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Liberal Party of Australia won 55 of 123 seats with 39.3% of the vote; 95.9% of registered voters cast a ballot, up 2.0 points on 1946.

  • Australian Labor Party 48 +5 seats 46.0% −3.7 points
  • Liberal Party of Australia 55 +40 seats 39.3% +10.7 points
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia 19 +7 seats 10.8% +0.1 points
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Australia 1946 federal election, party by party.

62 of 123 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 39.3%

    Share of the vote won by Liberal Party of Australia

    Liberal Party of Australia won 55 of 123 seats. A majority needs 62.

  2. +40 seats

    Seats gained by Liberal Party of Australia

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1946.

  3. 95.9%

    Voter turnout

    Up 2.0 points on 1946.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Australian Labor Party48+546.0−3.72,124,214
Liberal Party of Australia55+4039.3+10.71,816,304
National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia19+710.8+0.1500,349
Independents1−13.9+1.6179,913

± is the change against the Australia 1946 federal election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Australian Labor Party 2,124,214
  • Liberal Party of Australia 1,816,304
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia 500,349
  • Independents 179,913

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

95.9% of the 4,913,654 registered voters cast a ballot (4,714,360 ballots), up 2.0 points on 1946. 4,620,780 of them were valid votes.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Liberal Party of Australia39.3% of votes44.7% of seats
  • Australian Labor Party46.0% of votes39.0% of seats
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia10.8% of votes15.4% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 7.4 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 2.6 by votes and 2.7 by seats; Australian Labor Party led Liberal Party of Australia by 6.7 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of