Synod Experience Explorer

General Synod elections 2026: candidates and elected members by previous Synod experience: sitting members, past members, co-opted members and those new to Synod.

Overview

There are four groups: Sitting member (serving in July 2026 and standing), Past member (served before but not serving in July 2026), Co-opted member (co-opted during 2021–26) and New to Synod.
Sitting member includes anyone serving who is standing in a different constituency from 2021–26, which the data does not yet distinguish.
The page opens on the elected Clergy and Laity members, including unopposed elections and the Armed Forces and Channel Islands seats; the controls below change this.
Use Show to compare the elected with everyone who stood, and the other controls to narrow by House, province, election, sex, year of birth (a range such as 1951 to 1955), sexuality stance label, Inclusive Candidates (IC) list or Save the Parish.
Click any candidate name for the candidate box. The Sections button in the strip below opens, collapses or jumps to any section.

Success rate is the number elected divided by the number who stood in that group.
For sitting members it is the share of those standing again who were re-elected.
Rates based on fewer than 10 candidates are marked as small. Co-opted members (11 candidates) and past members (45) are small groups, so their rates move a long way with one person.
Year of birth is recorded only for the 400 elected members. When a year range is set, candidates with no recorded year are left out unless you tick Also include year not known.

Filters applied:

Summary of your selection

1. Candidates and elected, by House

There is one table for each House, with a combined table when more than one House is shown.
The columns follow the Show control: elected only, candidates and elected (with the success rate), candidates only, or not elected only.
Each % is the share of that House's candidates (or elected members) in that group.

2. Experience groups: candidates compared with elected

This section always compares everyone who stood with those elected, whatever Show is set to.
In the shares view, the top bar is all candidates and the bottom bar is those elected; a group that grows from the top bar to the bottom bar did better than its share of the pool.
In the success-rate view, bar length is the percentage elected, with elected / candidates in the label; rates based on fewer than 10 candidates are marked.

3. From candidate to elected

There is one diagram for each House, and it always shows everyone who stood, whatever Show is set to.
Bands run from each group on the left to the result on the right; band width is the number of candidates, and the figure on each band is its count.
Click a band for the list of its candidates, then click a name to open the candidate box.

4. Seats in each House

There is one semicircle for each House chosen in the House control, and a combined one when more than one is shown; each dot is one elected seat.
Dots are coloured by previous Synod experience. Seats are placed in a fixed order, not by anything else about the person: sitting members first, then past, co-opted and new, so each group fills a wedge from the left of the arc to the right; within a group, seats follow election name (A to Z), moving left to right and, at the same angle, from the inner ring outwards.
Grey outlined dots are seats that the other controls above have filtered out, so the House keeps its full size.
Hover over a dot for the name, click it for the candidate box, or click a group in the key for the list.
Bishops are the suffragan bishop seats only.

5. Experience by diocese and constituency

There is one row per election, for the Houses and other controls chosen above, and the first row is a total.
Use the buttons to show candidates, those elected, or both; each group shows its candidates, those elected and a success rate (elected divided by candidates).
The Share columns give sitting members and those new to Synod as a percentage of the candidates and of those elected.
Use Group by (one or two levels) to total elections by province, diocese, House, size of election and so on, and Columns to hide columns you do not need.
Click a number to list those candidates, then click a name to open the candidate box; click an election name, or any other part of a row, for the election box.
Click a heading to sort; the headings and election names stay in view as you scroll. The Count column is last and links to the STV Count Explorer.
Armed Forces and Channel Islands have no candidate list, so their Cand. figure is shown as n/a, but those elected are counted as both candidates and elected.

Sitting members standing again and re-elected, by diocese and constituency

One row for each election with at least one sitting member standing, for the House, province and election controls above. The bar is the share of those sitting members who were elected; the figures are elected of standing. Numbers are small, so one person moves a rate a long way. Click a row for the election box.

6. Experience groups, by year of birth and other characteristics

The first chart shows the elected members by year of birth; the groupings below it include Save the Parish.
For each group, the bars show how its members divide between the four experience groups.
With Show set to candidates and elected, the upper bar is all candidates and the lower bar those elected.
Click a coloured segment for the list, then click a name to open the candidate box.

Elected members by year of birth

Year of birth is recorded only for the elected members, so this chart shows the elected whatever Show is set to. Each bar is the elected members born in that period, divided by previous Synod experience.

By other characteristics

7. When in the count were they elected, and with how many first preferences?

The first chart groups elected members by the order they reached quota: the first third of the seats, the middle third and the last third; elections with fewer than 3 seats and unopposed elections are left out.
It shows whether each group tend to be elected early (a large first-preference vote) or in the last seats.
The second chart shows the average first-preference vote of each group as a percentage of the quota (the line marks 100%); it uses contested elections with a recorded count, and groups of fewer than 10 are marked.