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A constituency is any cohesive corporate unit or body bound by shared structures, goals or loyalty. It can be used to describe a business's customer base and shareholders, or a charity's donors or those it serves. The most common meaning of constituency occurs in politics and means the group of people or geographical area that a particular elected representative or group of elected representatives represents. The rest of this article deals with this sense of constituency.

Specifically, a constituency often refers to the group or area from which voters in an election are drawn. Depending on the electoral system being used, a constituency may elect one or more members. For instance, in the United Kingdom, Westminster Parliamentary constituencies each elect one Member of Parliament using a first past the post system (though some used to elect more than one), while the larger European Parliamentary constituencies each elect a number of Member of the European Parliament (see ' Regions of England').

Constituencies in the Republic of Ireland elect between three and five TDs, while constituencies between 1536 and 1800 in the Kingdom of IrelandThe Kingdom of Ireland was the name given to the English-ruled Irish state in 1541, by an act of the Irish Parliament. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171. King Henry VIII thus became the first King of Ireland since the Hig used to return two MPs. Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is the smallest of the Home Nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland lies in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It covers 14,139 square kilometres (5,459 square miles), and has a populati constituencies elects six MLANote: This article is about the Legislative Assemblies in the British context. For other usages, see the end of this article''. A Legislative Assembly in British constitutional thought is the second-to-top or third-to-top tier of a government led by a Govs to the Northern Ireland AssemblyThe Northern Ireland Assembly is a 108-member legislative body for Northern Ireland that sits at Stormont with powers devolved to it from the Westminster parliament. It is created as a power sharing body, so that every party is represented in the executiv.

In the United Kingdom, a parliamentary constituency is sometimes called a Parliamentary seat or a Division. Constituencies for local governmentLocal governments are administrative offices of an area smaller than a state. The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as central government national governments or (where appropriate) federal governments. elections are called Wards. (The article ' MPs elected in the UK general election, 2001This is a list of MPs elected to the House of Commons for the Fifty-Third Parliament of the United Kingdom at the UK general election, 2001, arranged by constituency. New MPs elected since the general election and changes in party allegiance are noted at' includes the constituencies as they stood at the last general election.)

In the United States, U.S. Supreme Court decisions require the equalization of populations of constituencies after each decennial census. This requirement opens up the possibility of gerrymandering for political or factional advantage. A Pennsylvania legislator long active in redistricting issues, State Rep. Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia, said that "In election years, constituents choose their legislative officials. In redistricting years, legislative officials usually try to choose their future constituents."

A marginal constituency is one where the margin between the expected voting for the major parties in an election is slim. In United Kingdom general elections, the voting in a relatively small number of marginal constituencies usually determines the outcome of the entire election.

In the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in, electoral constituencies are known as Districts. In Canada they are known as ridings. In Australia, Federal and State constituencies are known as electorates or seats .

In France, electoral constituencies are known as circonscriptions électorales.