Local electoral area (original) (raw)

A local electoral area (LEA; Irish: Toghlimistéir Áitiúil) is an electoral area for elections to local authorities in Ireland. All elections use the single transferable vote. The Republic of Ireland is divided into 166 LEAs, with an average population of 28,700 and average area of 423.3 square kilometres (163.4 sq mi). The boundaries of LEAs are defined by statutory instrument, usually based lower-level units called electoral divisions (EDs), with a total of 3,440 EDs in the state.