Electoral wards of Belfast

Wards are the smallest administrative unit in Northern Ireland and are set by the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner and reviewed every 8–12 years.

[1] Wards are used to create constituencies for local government authorities, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

The use of wards for statistical purposes by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has changed since the creation of 'Census Output Areas' (5022 in total) and 'Super Output Areas' (890 in total), which were created to address the variance in size of the 582 wards across Northern Ireland.

The review of local government which took place in the early 1970s expanded Belfast to take in some of the newer housing estates on the fringes of the city and attempted to equalise electorates.

The remaining 51 wards were intended to elect one member each using the first past the post electoral system.

The reintroduction of the single transferable vote method of election meant that a different system was required.

By the early 1980s, population shifts, demolition of some the older housing estates and residential flight caused by the Troubles had again led to substantial disparities in the electorates of the wards.