Elections to Larne Borough Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 15 councillors.
Election results
Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.
Districts summary
|- class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Alliance !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Area A |bgcolor="D46A4C"|30.8 |bgcolor="D46A4C"|1 |27.7 |1 |14.5 |1 |27.0 |1 |4 |- |align="left"|Area B |bgcolor="D46A4C"|44.6 |bgcolor="D46A4C"|2 |16.7 |1 |8.6 |0 |30.1 |1 |4 |- |align="left"|Area C |bgcolor="D46A4C"|37.2 |bgcolor="D46A4C"|3 |26.0 |2 |23.4 |2 |13.4 |0 |7 |- |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |37.2 |6 |24.2 |4 |17.4 |3 |21.2 |2 |15
Districts results
Area A
1977: 1 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Nationalist 1981: 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP 1977-1981 Change: Independent Nationalist gain from SDLP
Area B
1977: 1 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Vanguard 1981: 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x United Loyalist 1977-1981 Change: DUP and United Loyalist gain from Alliance and Vanguard
Area C
1977: 2 x Alliance, 2 x Vanguard, 2 x Independent, 1 x DUP 1981: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 2 x Alliance 1977-1981 Change: DUP (two seats) and UUP (two seats) gain from Vanguard (two seats) and Independent (two seats)
References