Editing Single transferable vote (section)

===Degree of proportionality===
The degree of proportionality of STV election results depends directly on the district magnitude (i.e. the number of seats in each district). While Ireland originally had a median district magnitude of five (ranging from three to nine) in 1923, successive governments lowered this. Systematically lowering the number of representatives from a given district directly benefits larger parties at the expense of smaller ones.

Supposing that the [[Droop quota]] is used: in a nine-seat district, the Droop quota is 10% (plus one vote); in a three-seat district, it would be 25% (plus one vote). This electoral threshold seems significantly higher than for most party-list PR systems, based on percentage points. However, the Droop quota in a district covering just part of a jurisdiction may be set at as few votes as an list PR system's electoral threshold set at a lower percentage but based on the votes cast across a whole jurisdiction. For instance, in the [[2022 Danish election]], the main electoral threshold of 2 percent in use meant 71,000 of the 3.5{{nbsp}}million votes cast overall were required to be eligible for leveling seats, while in the 10-seat North Zealand Folketing constituency, the Droop quota (set at 9 percent) would have been 26,500 (1/11th of 292,000 valid votes). In the North Zealand constituency in the 2022 election, held using list PR (where the theoretical threshold is ten percent of district votes), the Conservative People's party{{snd}}with just 22,000 votes{{snd}}won one out of ten seats in the district. When levelling seats were allocated, the Independent Greens{{snd}}with almost 32,000 votes overall{{snd}}were not allocated any seats.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Fordelingen af mandater ved folketingsvalget den 1. november 2022 | language=da | trans-title=The distribution of seats in the general election on November 1, 2022 | url=https://www.dst.dk/valg/Valg1968094/other/Fordelingen-af-mandater-ved-FV2022.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224044156/https://www.dst.dk/valg/Valg1968094/other/Fordelingen-af-mandater-ved-FV2022.pdf | archive-date=24 December 2022}}</ref>

An Irish parliamentary committee in 2010 discussed the "increasing trend towards the creation of three-seat constituencies in Ireland" and recommended not less than four-seat constituencies, except where the geographic size of such a constituency would be disproportionately large.{{sfn|Ireland|2010|p=177}} Establishing an acceptable geograpical district size is subjective; for example, the entire country of Ireland is smaller in size than each of the 18 largest single-member ridings used in Canadian elections and only a bit more than three times the size of the Scottish Highlands, which elects just one MP.<ref>https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810001001&lang=e Statistics Canada – Population and dwelling counts: Canada and federal electoral districts (2013 Representation Order)</ref>

STV provides proportionality by transferring votes to minimize waste, and therefore also minimizes the number of unrepresented or [[disenfranchised]] voters. As each winner is elected by exactly same number of votes as much as possible, each party receives approximately its due share of seats in each district and thus proportional representation overall.