Elections to the City of Edinburgh Council were held on 3 May 2012, the same day as the 2012 Scottish local elections. The election was the second using 17 new wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, each ward elected three or four Councillors using the single transferable vote system form of proportional representation system of election.

The main feature of the elections was the near obliteration of the Scottish Liberal Democrats as they collapsed from 17 seats on the city council to just 3, which saw them occupying the position as the smallest party. Their leader, and the leader of the council, Jenny Dawe, lost her seat in Meadows/Morningside, epitomising the poor performance. Scottish Labour replaced the Lib Dems as the largest party as they made 5 gains, winning 20 seats in total. The Scottish National Party became the second largest party, gaining 6 seats and 18 seats in total. The Scottish Conservatives retained 11 seats on the council while the Scottish Greens doubled their seat numbers to 6.

After the election a coalition was formed between the Labour Party and the SNP. This replaced the previous Lib Dem – SNP Coalition which had existed from 2007 to 2012.

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes. The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 3 May 2007. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.

2007: 1xCon; 1xLib Dem; 1xSNP
2012: 1xSNP; 1xCon; 1xLib Dem
2007-2012 Change: No Change

2007: 1xCon; 1xSNP; 1xLab
2012: 1xSNP; 1xLab; 1xCon
2007-2012 Change: No Change

2007: 2xLib Dem; 1xSNP
2012: 1xLab; 1xSNP; 1xLib Dem
2007-2012 Change: Lab gain one seat from Lib Dem

2007: 2xLab; 1xSNP; 1xLib Dem
2012: 2xLab; 2xSNP;
2007-2012 Change: SNP gain one seat from Lib Dem