List of New South Wales legislative elections

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 Australian 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 of Australia in 1945.

General election dates

• New South Wales state election, 1927, held 8 October 1927
• New South Wales state election, 1930, held 25 October 1930
• New South Wales state election, 1932, held 11 June 1932
• New South Wales state election, 1935, held 11 May 1935
• New South Wales state election, 1938, held 26 March 1938
• New South Wales state election, 1941, held 10 May 1941
• New South Wales state election, 1971, held 13 February 1971
• New South Wales state election, 1973, held 17 November 1973
• New South Wales state election, 1976, held 1 May 1976
• New South Wales state election, 1978, held 7 October 1978
• New South Wales state election, 1981, held 19 September 1981
• New South Wales state election, 1984, held 24 March 1984
• New South Wales state election, 1988, held 19 March 1988
• New South Wales state election, 1991, held 25 May 1991
• New South Wales state election, 1995, held 25 March 1995
• New South Wales state election, 1999, held 27 March 1999
• New South Wales state election, 2003, held 22 March 2003
• New South Wales state election, 2007, held 24 March 2007
• New South Wales state election, 2011, held 26 March 2011

By-election dates

Further information: 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	Labor	Country Labor	Liberal	UAP	Nation- alist	Prog- ressive	Liberal Reform [A]	Protect- ionist [B]	Free Trade	Country/ National [C]	DLP	Lang Labor	Independent										Other Parties
															Ind	Lab	Lib	UAP	Nat	Prog	LR	Prot	FTP	C/N
2011		93	20		51							18			3											1 Greens
2007		93	50	2	22							13			6
2003		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	29			38						23
1932		90	24			43						23
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

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

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

^C 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.