Local government in Northern Ireland

Local government in Northern Ireland is divided among 11 single-tier districts known as local government districts (abbreviated LGDs) and formerly known as district council areas (DCAs). Councils in Northern Ireland do not carry out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the United Kingdom; for example they have no responsibility for education, road-building or housing (although they do nominate members to the advisory Northern Ireland Housing Council). Their functions include planning, waste and recycling services, leisure and community services, building control and local economic and cultural development. The collection of rates is handled centrally by the Land and Property Services agency of the Northern Ireland Executive.

The 11 districts first had their boundaries determined in 2012. Elections were held to the new councils in 2014, and they assumed the powers of the previous councils in 2015. Basic geographical statistics are shown below. Previously (between 1972 and 2015) the country was divided into 26 smaller districts.

Each of the 11 councils is divided into 7 district electoral areas (DEAs), with the exception of Belfast, which has 10 DEAs. Each DEA, in turn, is made up of 5, 6 or 7 wards, with the number of councillors for each DEA equal to the number of wards.

There are 80 DEAs in Northern Ireland in total, and the current DEA boundaries were finalised in 2012, and first used in the 2014 election, with the new councils coming into operation in May 2015. Prior to this, the 1993 election was the last time local government boundaries had been redrawn - between 1993 and 2011, there were 102 DEAs across the old 26 councils, with each council having between 3 and 9 DEAs each.

By definition, DEAs nest exactly within the 11 Local Government Districts. However, they do not nest within the parliamentary constituencies - for example, the DEAs of Newry, Slieve Gullion and Cusher all fall entirely within the Newry and Armagh constituency, but the Armagh DEA does not - one of its wards, Blackwatertown, falls within the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency instead. This means there is no exact comparison of local government election results with Assembly/Westminster results.

However, comparisons are possible between combinations of 2012 DEAs, and combinations of DEAs/LGDs from before 2014. For example, the total election results in the Limavady and Benbradagh DEAs from 2014 can be compared with the results of the whole Limavady borough from 2011, as both cover the same area. Similar comparisons are as follows:

Note that Erne West is the only DEA in Northern Ireland whose boundaries were completely unchanged between 1993 and 2012.

The 80 DEAs are the most granular unit of elected representation, thus providing a more localised indicator of voting preferences than the results in the larger parliamentary constituencies.