Elections to Banbridge District Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used two 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="" | UUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Area A |bgcolor="40BFF5"|34.7 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |25.3 |2 |13.9 |1 |26.1 |1 |7 |- |align="left"|Area B |bgcolor="40BFF5"|50.4 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|5 |27.9 |2 |16.2 |1 |5.5 |0 |8 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |42.1 |8 |26.5 |4 |14.9 |2 |16.5 |1 |15
Districts results
Area A
1977: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Independent Nationalist, 1 x Independent Unionist 1981: 3 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP, 1 x Independent Nationalist 1977-1981 Change: DUP gain from Independent Unionist
Area B
1977: 5 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP 1981: 5 x UUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x SDLP 1977-1981 Change: No change
References