VAA study 2014 municipal council elections The Netherlands (data file)

In addition to basic aggregate features of municipal voting (number of eligible voters, turnout, number of invalid votes) calculated aggregate features such as volatility (net shift of votes / seats in 2014 as compared to 2010) and fragmentation (effective number of different parties) are included. For each of the municipalities basic socio-demographic statistics from the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) are included (population size, crime, dominant age category, average income and ethnic fragmentation (the latter is a composite based on detailed CBS data on the number of inhabitants from different ethnicities)).

Furthermore composite muicipal characteristics were added based on a factor analysis of measured indicators (scores on socio-economic rich-poor dimension and on cultural dimension (rural-monocultural versus urban-multicultural). The data set was set up to study whether VAAs are helpful to countervaill the trends toward lower turnout, higher volatility and further fragmentation.