electionstracker

Australia 1955 federal election

What was the result of the 1955 federal election in Australia?

Liberal Party of Australia won 57 of 124 seats with 39.7% of the vote. 87.4% 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 57 of 124 seats with 39.7% of the vote; 87.4% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 3.2 points on 1954.

  • Australian Labor Party 49 −10 seats 44.7% −5.4 points
  • Liberal Party of Australia 57 +10 seats 39.7% +1.2 points
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia 18 +1 seat 7.9% −0.6 points
  • Democratic Labour Party 0 5.1%
  • 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 1954 federal election, party by party.

63 of 124 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 39.7%

    Share of the vote won by Liberal Party of Australia

    Liberal Party of Australia won 57 of 124 seats. A majority needs 63.

  2. +10 seats

    Seats gained by Liberal Party of Australia

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1954. Australian Labor Party lost 10 seats.

  3. 87.4%

    Voter turnout

    Down 3.2 points on 1954.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Australian Labor Party49−1044.7−5.41,971,417
Liberal Party of Australia57+1039.7+1.21,751,748
National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia18+17.9−0.6347,445
Democratic Labour Party05.1227,083
Independents002.6−0.3112,693

± is the change against the Australia 1954 federal election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Australian Labor Party 1,971,417
  • Liberal Party of Australia 1,751,748
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia 347,445
  • Democratic Labour Party 227,083
  • Independents 112,693

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?

87.4% of the 5,195,100 registered voters cast a ballot (4,540,751 ballots), down 3.2 points on 1954. 4,410,386 of them were valid votes. The lowest turnout of this kind in our data, which begins in 1946.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Liberal Party of Australia39.7% of votes46.0% of seats
  • Australian Labor Party44.7% of votes39.5% of seats
  • National (Country) Party / National Party of Australia7.9% of votes14.5% of seats
  • Democratic Labour Party5.1% of votes0.0% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 8.4 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 2.7 by votes and 2.6 by seats; Australian Labor Party led Liberal Party of Australia by 5.0 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of