The 2019 Local Government Elections in Northern Ireland

Map by Conal Kelly

The 2019 Elections

The elections for Northern Ireland's 11 local councils took place on 2 May, 2019. When nominations closed on 12 April, there were 819 candidates registered; down from 905 in 2014. Belfast, with its ten electoral areas, had the highest number of candidates at 129, while Mid Ulster has the fewest at 59. The party with the highest number of nominees was the DUP with 172, followed by Sinn Féin with 155, the UUP with 117, the SDLP with 85, and the Alliance with 84.

These were the second local government elections to the eleven “super councils” established in 2012. The results of the first election in 2014 can be found below. The new councils superseded the twenty-six local government districts established in 1973, which formed the basis of ten elections between 1973 and 2011. You can look at all the local election results since 1973 here, and compare specifically with the 2014 elections here, the 2011 elections here, the 2005 elections here, the 2001 elections here, the 1997 elections here and the 1993 elections here. (See spreadsheet archive.)

The 2019 Results

Details of the 2019 distribution of seats on the 11 District Councils

The Electoral Wards

The ward is the primary unit of electoral geography and represents the building blocks for the local government districts. A ward cannot be divided between districts and must be contiguous to at least one other ward within the district (except where the ward consists of an island). Northern Ireland is divided into 462 wards. The number of wards designated per district is as follows: Belfast has 60 wards; Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon district and Newry, Mourne and Down district both have 41 wards; the remaining eight districts have 40 wards each. The number of wards a distrct has is the equivalent of the number of councillors to be elected. The map of the electoral wards is outlined below:

Map by Conal Kelly

The District Electoral Areas

The District Electoral Area (DEA) is a distinct territorial subdivision of the local government district. It is comprised of between five and seven wards and is the focus of separate electoral contests. Northern Ireland is divided into 80 DEAs. They comprise 34 five ward areas; 30 six ward areas; and 16 seven ward areas encompassing all 462 wards. Each of the local government districts consists of seven DEAs with the exception of Belfast which has ten. The map of the new district electoral areas is outlined below:

Map by Conal Kelly

See also:

Other sites based at ARK: ORB (Online Research Bank) | CAIN (Conflict Archive on the INternet) | Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey

Your comments, please! Send an email to me at nicholas.whyte@gmail.com.

Updated by Conal Kelly, 13 May 2019.