Councils in Northern Ireland

Eleven councils, with different responsibilities

Northern Ireland has 11 local councils. They provide services such as waste collection, leisure, local planning and environmental health. Responsibilities differ from those of councils elsewhere in the UK. Source: nidirect.

A ward is not the council election area

The map on each page shows the ONS statistical wards. Council elections use district electoral areas (DEAs), which group wards together. The supplied 2023 turnout workbook lists DEAs. It is important to keep these two geographies separate.

For example, the Belfast page lists turnout by DEA. It does not attach a DEA result to one statistical ward or colour each ward as if it elected one councillor.

What the supplied data can show

The 2023 file gives electorate, votes polled and turnout. It does not contain candidate results or STV transfers. The page therefore shows turnout without inventing winners. Follow the source link to the Electoral Office for the full count files.

The broad party columns in the annual seat archive group most Northern Ireland parties under “Other”. The named-member table gives each councillor’s party from the 2026 archive. Use that table when the broad seat categories are not useful. It remains an archived list, not a current membership register.

Population and local costs

Each page includes mid-2025 population estimates and a 2021 census resident count. The English Band D council tax dataset does not cover Northern Ireland. No English tax figure is substituted for a Northern Ireland council.