Overall the seat has close to national average income and several developments have desirable views as the upland town cuts into the Pennines.

Relatively few people rely upon social housing, however the Dewsbury East ward contains a high proportion of social housing in the Chickenley estate, while Dewsbury South contains the Thornhill area, where the local school was the subject of the acclaimed Educating Yorkshire series.

In the light of increasing concern over Muslim extremism, the Labour Party candidate Shahid Malik enjoyed a fairly large public media profile after his victory in 2005, with various TV appearances and interviews, strongly denouncing believers in and adherents of such views; however, this has also been a strong area for the British National Party, who obtained their highest vote in Britain (13.1%) in the 2005 general election, much of it taken at the Labour Party's expense.

However, at the 2010 general election, the BNP's popularity in Dewsbury fell (despite a substantial nationwide rise in support for the party compared to five years previously) and they gained a mere 6% of the vote.

The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected: Craig, F. W. S. (1983).