Northern Ireland
Parliament Buildings, Stormont. Photo: Gareth James, CC BY-SA 2.0
Northern Ireland
Surveys, Assembly debates, election results, census data, political finance records, conflict archives and literature on politics in Northern Ireland.
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Public Opinion
The Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study
The Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study (NIAS) has been conducted after some Assembly elections. These studies are available in separate datasets.
Northern Ireland Life & Times Survey
The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (NILT) is an annual survey of public opinion and identity. It has been conducted every year since 1998 and includes reports and raw datasets for each year.
Northern Irish Life & Times Youth Survey
The Northern Ireland Young Life & Times Survey (NIYLT) is a survey operated by the NILT which measures public opinion and identity of young Northern Irish people. The survey includes 16 year olds and has been carried out most years since 2003.
State of the Union Survey
The State of the Union Survey is a pan-UK survey which examines attitudes to a variety of political and constitutional factors.
Northern Ireland Assembly Polling
Ireland Votes is a polling aggregator which collects all party polls conducted in Northern Ireland. A complete dataset of all polls is also available.
Northern Irish European Election Studies
The European Election Studies (EES) provide data on various aspects of electoral behaviour in the European Parliament. Collected data ranges from voter and elite surveys to media studies and party manifestos. Studies including Northern Ireland occurred in: 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, and 2014
Northern Ireland General Election Survey
A series of post-election surveys of the Northern Ireland electorate after UK general elections, covering vote choice, party identification, constitutional preferences, attitudes to power-sharing, Brexit and the Windsor Framework. The surveys were led by Jonathan Tonge (University of Liverpool) with colleagues, funded by the ESRC and archived at the UK Data Service. The 2024 survey interviewed 2,034 electors face to face between July and August 2024.
Early Northern Ireland Attitude Surveys
Two foundational academic surveys of political attitudes in Northern Ireland: Richard Rose’s Northern Ireland Loyalty Study (1968), conducted on the eve of the Troubles, and Edward Moxon-Browne’s Northern Ireland Attitude Survey (1978). Both are archived and available on registration.
Institute of Irish Studies Northern Ireland Surveys
The Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool commissions regular surveys of the Northern Ireland electorate from Social Market Research, published in partnership with newspapers such as The Irish News and The Sunday Times. The surveys cover vote intention, constitutional preferences and attitudes to political institutions, and full reports are published as PDFs (most recently May 2026, n = 1,534).
Testing the Temperature: Post-Brexit Governance Polls
A series of opinion polls on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, the Windsor Framework and related issues, carried out by LucidTalk for the Post-Brexit Governance NI project at Queen’s University Belfast (Katy Hayward, David Phinnemore and colleagues). The polls have run several times a year since 2021, with the fifteenth report published in 2026.
UK–Ireland Border and Stability of Peace Survey
Survey and focus group data on attitudes in Northern Ireland to different Brexit outcomes and their consequences for political stability and peace, including a representative face-to-face survey of 1,012 people (Ipsos MORI, February–March 2018). The data were produced by John Garry, Kevin Turner, John Coakley, David Farrell and colleagues and are archived at UK Data Service ReShare.
ARINS/Irish Times North and South Surveys
Paired opinion surveys conducted simultaneously in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by Ipsos for the ARINS project (Analysis and Research on Ireland North and South) of the Royal Irish Academy and the University of Notre Dame, in partnership with The Irish Times. The surveys cover constitutional preferences, attitudes to Irish unification and its possible models, identity and public services. Microdata for the 2022 and 2023 waves are available in SPSS format, alongside questionnaires and data tables.
European Values Study
The European Values Study (EVS) is a cross-national, repeated survey of values and attitudes on family, work, religion, politics and society, conducted roughly every nine years since 1981. Ireland took part in the 1981, 1990, 1999/2000 and 2008 waves, and Northern Ireland was surveyed as a separate sample in the same four waves. Data are distributed by GESIS.
Northern Irish Party Positions and Legislative Data
Local and European Parliament Election Manifestos
The CAIN Manifesto Explorer provides direct access to the content of party manifestos for local, Assembly, General and European Parliament elections in Northern Ireland. Some records reach back to 1975 although this is more complete from 1997.
Assembly Debates
An Assembly database contains the complete record of speeches from the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2006. Whilst They Work for You holds a record back to 1998.
Northern Ireland Assembly Open Data
The Northern Ireland Assembly’s open data service provides web services (XML and JSON) for members and their roles, oral and written questions since 2007, plenary business including divisions and individual members’ votes, Hansard contributions, and organisations such as departments, committees, parties and All-Party Groups. The data are released under the Open Government Licence.
Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
The Committee examines the expenditure, administration and policy of the Northern Ireland Office and its associated public bodies.
Archive of Leaflets and Election Materials
The ElectionLeaflets archive is a collection of election materials from UK political campaigns since 2010. It includes material from Northern Irish political parties and referendums.
Manifesto Project
The Manifesto Project provides data on political parties’ policy positions in over 50 countries. The project has collected and coded over 5,000 party manifestos since 1945. The dataset includes the Manifesto Corpus, which contains the full texts of a subset of party manifestos from Northern Ireland.
Euromanifestos Project
The Euromanifestos Project provides data on the policy positions and issue salience of political parties in manifestos released for European Parliament Elections. It includes Northern Irish parties.
Populism and Political Parties Expert Survey (POPPA)
POPPA measures the populism of political parties and its components (Manichaean worldview, people-centrism, anti-elitism and others), together with left–right and other positions, based on expert surveys in 2018 and 2023. Irish parties are covered in both waves, including Aontú and Right to Change in 2023, and the 2023 wave also covers Northern Irish parties such as the DUP, SDLP and Alliance within the United Kingdom sample.
Northern Ireland Executive Press Releases
The Northern Ireland Executive’s website maintains a searchable record of press releases issued by the Executive since 2015.
They Work for You
They Work for You maintains an up to date record of all speeches given by every representative in the Northern Ireland Assembly and in Westminster. It also contains a biography of all elected representatives.
Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service
The Assembly’s Research and Information Service (RaISe) publishes research papers, briefing notes and statistical profiles, including constituency and election statistics, prepared for MLAs and committees.
Census and Reports
Irish Political Studies: Northern Ireland Annual Data Review
Founded in 1986, Irish Political Studies (IPS) is the official journal of the Political Studies Association of Ireland. The journal serves as an authoritative source for academic publications on politics in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as relations with the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Northern Ireland Census
An official census of Northern Ireland is usually taken every 10 years and includes detailed demographic data.
European Data: Northern Ireland
European Data is the official portal for European data including Eurobarometer, EU statistics and governmental datasets. It contains a large trove of datasets relating to Northern Ireland.
Women in Politics and the Northern Ireland Assembly
A 2015 governmental report into challenges and barriers which prevent some women from becoming politically active, and examined some potential solutions.
Northern Ireland Assembly Operations
Register of Members’ Interests
Information on financial interests and/or other registrable interest which might reasonably be thought by others to influence a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s actions.
Members’ Salaries and Expenses
Overview of the salaries and expenses of Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly
The website maintains an up-to-date database of all legislation passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Political Finance
The Electoral Commission: Political Finance Online
The databases of the Electoral Commission of the UK and Westminster Account can be filtered by party based in Northern Ireland. The Electoral Commission retains a record of party finances and donations and also maintains a list of all officially registered parties in Northern Ireland.
Lobbying the Northern Ireland Office
Use filters to track details on meetings between lobbyists, interest groups and the Northern Ireland Office on the Open Access UK database by Transparency International.
Civil Society Organisations in Northern Ireland
The Charity Commission of Northern Ireland maintains a searchable and downloadable list and database of all charities registered in Northern Ireland.
Election Results and Relevant Acts
Northern Ireland General Election Results
Full results and additional information on general elections since 1918.
Northern Ireland Assembly Election Results
Elections results to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Assembly was established following the passage of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, with the first election taking place in 1998. Results are held by Ark.ac.uk and contain links to constituency level results. The site also houses results of earlier elections to the former Northern Ireland Parliament, and other elected bodies.
Northern Ireland Referendum Results
Results of referendums held in Northern Ireland since 1998, held variously by Ark.
Northern Ireland European Elections Results
All results of European Elections held in Northern Ireland until 2019.
Northern Ireland Council Election Results
The Ark archive contains all local government election results dating back to 1973.
Electoral Office for Northern Ireland
The Electoral Office for Northern Ireland (EONI) is responsible for electoral registration and the conduct of elections in Northern Ireland. It publishes official results, including count-by-count results for the 2022 Assembly election, the 2023 local council elections and the 2024 UK parliamentary election, as well as electorate statistics.
Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland
The Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland reviews the boundaries of Northern Ireland’s Westminster constituencies, which also define the 18 Assembly constituencies. Its website publishes reports, maps and supporting data from the 2023 review and earlier reviews.
Legal Acts and Agreements
Northern Ireland has no specific constitution, but operates based on a number of agreements with the UK government and the government of Ireland. The unique consociational features of the Assembly and intergovernmental bodies were established under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, and amended by the St Andrew’s Agreement. The Windsor Framework governs trade deals with the European Union. This is distilled within the Northern Ireland Act.
Conflict and Peace
CAIN Database on the Troubles
The CAIN Archive is a collection of information and source material on ‘the Troubles’ and politics in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present. There is also some material on society in the region. CAIN is located in Ulster University and is an associate of INCORE and ARK.
CAIN and INCORE also developed the Accounts of the Conflict, a digital archive of personal accounts of the conflict.
PSNI Security Situation Statistics and Paramilitary-Style Attacks
The Police Service of Northern Ireland publishes official security situation statistics, with monthly and annual bulletins and spreadsheets on security-related deaths, shootings, bombings and casualties of paramilitary-style attacks. A separate disclosure log records every paramilitary-style attack since the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (April 1998 to April 2025), including victims, times, locations and the group to which the attack was attributed, where known.
Unified Dataset on Fatalities in the Northern Ireland Conflict
A dataset of 3,702 conflict-related deaths in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 2005, with 120 variables on victims, perpetrators, location and circumstances. It was compiled by Anar Ahmadov and James Hughes for their article on ideology and civilian victimisation in Irish Political Studies (2020).
Independent Reporting Commission
The Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) was established under the Fresh Start Agreement to report on progress towards ending paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland. It publishes an annual report (the eighth in December 2025) assessing paramilitarism and the measures taken against it.
Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report
The Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report, produced by the Community Relations Council with support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, tracks progress towards a peaceful and inclusive society across four areas: security, equality, political progress, and cohesion and sharing. Six reports have been published, the most recent in December 2023, covering October 2018 to May 2023.
Miscellaneous
Northern Ireland’s Open Data Portal
A collection of NI Public Sector datasets in open, free, and reusable formats.
All-Party Parliamentary Group for Northern Ireland
Parallel Parliament maintains a database of Westminster All-Party Parliamentary Groups. The APPG for Northern Ireland was not included in the most recent APPG register and appears to be defunct, though its historical membership and reports remain archived on the site.
PRONI Archive
The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland maintains a large archive of historical and political information on Northern Ireland, much of which has been digitised.
Literature
Introductions to Northern Irish Politics (In progress)
- Bew, P., Gibbon, P., & Patterson, H. (2002). Northern Ireland 1921–2001: Political Forces and Social Classes. Serif Books.
- Birrell, D., & Gormley-Heenan, C. (2015). Multi-Level Governance and Northern Ireland. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Dixon, P. (2008). Northern Ireland: The Politics of War and Peace (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
- Garry, J. (2016). Consociation and Voting in Northern Ireland: Party Competition and Electoral Behavior. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- McAtackney, L., & Ó Catháin, M., eds. (2023). The Routledge Handbook of the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace. Routledge.
- McEvoy, J. (2008). The Politics of Northern Ireland. Edinburgh University Press.
- Mitchell, P., & Wilford, R., eds. (2018). Politics in Northern Ireland. Routledge.
- O’Leary, B. (2019). A Treatise on Northern Ireland (Vols. I–III). Oxford University Press. Vol. I: Colonialism | Vol. II: Control | Vol. III: Consociation and Confederation
- O’Leary, B., & McGarry, J. (2016). The Politics of Antagonism: Understanding Northern Ireland. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Walker, B. (2012). A Political History of the Two Irelands: From Partition to Peace. Palgrave Macmillan.
Parties, Elections and the Assembly
- Haughey, S. (2023). The Northern Ireland Assembly: Reputations and Realities. Routledge.
- Hennessey, T., Braniff, M., McAuley, J. W., Tonge, J., & Whiting, S. A. (2019). The Ulster Unionist Party: Country Before Party? Oxford University Press.
- Kelly, C. J. (2026). Explaining Northern Ireland Party Stances on the EU: Dividing Lines Before and After Brexit. Routledge.
- Murtagh, C. (2025). Civic Parties in Divided Societies: Northern Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
- Pierson, C. (2025). Women’s Troubles: Gender and Feminist Politics in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland. Manchester University Press.
- Tonge, J., Braniff, M., Hennessey, T., McAuley, J. W., & Whiting, S. (2014). The Democratic Unionist Party: From Protest to Power. Oxford University Press.
- Tonge, J., Braniff, M., Hennessey, T., McAuley, J. W., Rice, C., & Whiting, S. A. (2024). The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland: Beyond Unionism and Nationalism. Oxford University Press.
Power-Sharing, Conflict and Peace
- Agarin, T., & Taylor, R. (2025). Consociational Power-Sharing in Northern Ireland: Uncertain Stability. Routledge.
- Coakley, J., & Todd, J. (2020). Negotiating a Settlement in Northern Ireland, 1969–2019. Oxford University Press.
- Gormley-Heenan, C. (2007). Political Leadership and the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Palgrave Macmillan.
- McEvoy, J. (2015). Power-Sharing Executives: Governing in Bosnia, Macedonia, and Northern Ireland. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Nagle, J., & Clancy, M.-A. C. (2010). Shared Society or Benign Apartheid? Understanding Peace-Building in Divided Societies. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Todd, J. (2018). Identity Change after Conflict: Ethnicity, Boundaries and Belonging in the Two Irelands. Palgrave Macmillan.
Brexit, the Protocol and British–Irish Relations
- McCrudden, C., ed. (2022). The Law and Practice of the Ireland-Northern Ireland Protocol. Cambridge University Press.
- Murphy, M. C. (2018). Europe and Northern Ireland’s Future: Negotiating Brexit’s Unique Case. Agenda Publishing.
- Tannam, E. (2024). British-Irish Relations in the Twenty-First Century: The Good Friday Agreement, Brexit, and the Totality of Relations. Oxford University Press.
- Tannam, E., ed. (2020). Beyond the Good Friday Agreement: In the Midst of Brexit. Routledge.
- Whitten, L. C. (2023). Brexit and the Northern Ireland Constitution. Oxford University Press.
Contribute
If you know of a dataset, dashboard or paper that belongs here, send it to us through this form or email stefan.mueller@ucd.ie.