The total number of candidates standing at general elections in Britain has obviously gone up as the number of constituencies have expanded – the result of an expanding population. The increasing number of parties – away from the traditional Liberal and Conservative parties of the Ninteenth Century – also accounts for the growing number of candidates.
1832: 1,037
1835: 945
1837: 994
1841: 916
1847: 879
1852: 953
1857: 878
1859: 860
1865: 922
1868: 1,039
1874: 1,080
1880: 1,103
1885: 1,338
1886: 1,115
1892: 1,303
1895: 1,180
1900: 1,102
1906: 1,273
1910: 1,315
1910*: 1,191
1918: 1,623
1922: 1,441
1923: 1,446
1924: 1,428
1929: 1,730
1931: 1,292
1935: 1,348
1945: 1,683
1950: 1,868
1951: 1,376
1955: 1,409
1959: 1,536
1964: 1,757
1966: 1,707
1970: 1,837
1974: 2,135
1974**: 2,252
1979: 2,576
* = December
** = October