Elections to Londonderry City Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used five district electoral areas to elect a total of 27 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 ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | IIP !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Area A |bgcolor="#99FF66"|42.4 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |27.2 |2 |24.2 |1 |0.0 |0 |6.2 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Area B |20.6 |1 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|36.3 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|2 |28.1 |2 |5.3 |0 |9.7 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Area C |bgcolor="#99FF66"|53.0 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |26.8 |2 |20.2 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Area D |bgcolor="#99FF66"|48.2 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |0.0 |0 |15.5 |1 |26.5 |1 |9.8 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Area E |bgcolor="#99FF66"|49.3 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|4 |10.5 |1 |6.2 |0 |22.3 |1 |11.7 |0 |5 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |41.3 |14 |18.6 |5 |15.6 |4 |13.7 |4 |10.8 |0 |27
Districts results
Area A
1977: 3 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP 1981: 3 x SDLP, 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP 1977-1981 Change: DUP gain from UUP
Area B
1977: 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Alliance 1981: 2 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP 1977-1981 Change: DUP gain from Alliance
Area C
1977: 3 x SDLP, 2 x Nationalist 1981: 3 x SDLP, 2 x IIP 1977-1981 Change: Nationalists (two seats) join IIP
Area D
1977: 3 x SDLP, 1 x Nationalist, 1 x UUP 1981: 3 x SDLP, 1 x IIP, 1 x DUP 1977-1981 Change: DUP gain from UUP, Nationalist joins IIP
Area E
1977: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Nationalist 1981: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x IIP 1977-1981 Change: SDLP gain from Alliance, Nationalist joins IIP
References