Editing Local electoral area (section)

{{Short description|District of local elections in Ireland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=November 2021}}
[[File:Map of 2019 Dublin city council election.svg|thumb|[[Dublin]] divided into its eleven local electoral areas, with dots symbolising members of [[Dublin City Council]] for each LEA]]
[[File:Clane Electoral Area June 2009.png|thumb|Clane LEA, [[County Kildare]], shown divided into its [[electoral division (Ireland)|electoral division]]s (EDs).]]
A '''local electoral area''' ('''LEA'''; {{langx|ga|toghlimistéar áitiúil}})<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.ie/ga/preasraitis/0b7d8-fograionn-an-taire-slainte-stephen-donnelly-td-eolas-aitiuil-nua-ata-ag-dul-beo-ar-mhol-sonrai-covid-19/|title=Fógraíonn an tAire Sláinte Stephen Donnelly TD eolas áitiúil nua atá ag dul beo ar Mhol Sonraí COVID-19|website=www.gov.ie|date=19 September 2020 |access-date=2021-02-16|archive-date=2021-01-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116224217/https://www.gov.ie/ga/preasraitis/0b7d8-fograionn-an-taire-slainte-stephen-donnelly-td-eolas-aitiuil-nua-ata-ag-dul-beo-ar-mhol-sonrai-covid-19/|url-status=live}}</ref> is an [[electoral area]] for elections to [[Local government in the Republic of Ireland|local authorities in Ireland]]. All [[elections in the Republic of Ireland|elections]] use the [[single transferable vote]]. [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] is divided into 166 LEAs, with an average population of 28,700 and average area of {{Convert|423.3|km2}}. The boundaries of LEAs are determined by order of the [[Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage]], usually based on lower-level units called [[electoral division (Ireland)|electoral division]]s (EDs), with a total of 3,440 EDs in the state.

As well as their use for electoral purposes, LEAs are local administrative units in [[Eurostat]] [[Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics|NUTS]] classification.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/nuts/national-structures|title=Correspondence between the NUTS levels and the national administrative units|date=11 June 2020|access-date=14 January 2022|website=[[Eurostat]]|archive-date=14 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114114347/https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/nuts/national-structures|url-status=live}}</ref> They are used in local numbers of cases of [[COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland|COVID-19]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/356d2-minister-for-health-stephen-donnelly-td-announces-new-local-information-going-live-on-the-covid-19-data-hub/|title=Minister Donnelly announces new local information going live on the COVID-19 Data Hub|website=www.gov.ie|date=19 September 2020 |access-date=2021-02-16|archive-date=2021-02-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220230508/https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/356d2-minister-for-health-stephen-donnelly-td-announces-new-local-information-going-live-on-the-covid-19-data-hub/|url-status=live}}</ref>