HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

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 Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
do not carry out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
; 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 Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...
, waste and recycling services, leisure and community services, building control and local economic and cultural development. The collection of
rates Rate or rates may refer to: Finance * Rate (company), an American residential mortgage company formerly known as Guaranteed Rate * Rates (tax), a type of taxation system in the United Kingdom used to fund local government * Exchange rate, rate ...
is handled centrally by the Land and Property Services agency of the
Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive (Irish language, Irish: ''Feidhmeannas Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Executive'') is the devolution, devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branc ...
.


Local Government Districts (2015-present)


Local Government Districts (2012)

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.


District Electoral Areas (2012)

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 Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...
, 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. Under STV, each DEA is a multi-member district, electing 5, 6 or 7 councillors, with all councillors representing the entire DEA. Wards do not have elected representation in their own right, and no election results at ward level are officially recorded or published, besides turnout levels at individual polling stations. The below map shows each DEA numbered, with the 2012 Local Government Districts in bold. The inset map shows DEAs in the districts of Antrim and Newtownabbey, Ards and North Down, Belfast, and Lisburn and Castlereagh.


Electoral Wards (2012)

Electoral wards are the basic unit of Northern Ireland's political geography. Since at least 1973, every local government boundary commission has involved the drawing of ward boundaries, then the grouping of wards into DEAs, such that a DEA has one councillor for each ward it has. Likewise, parliamentary constituencies (and thus, Assembly constituencies) are always made up of combinations of electoral wards. Electoral wards are also used in allocating funding, such as for urban regeneration programmes under the Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy.


Composition of district councils

This table shows number of councillors by party, election, and district, based on the three local elections that have occurred since local government reform in 2014-15. 'S.' denotes seats. '14', '19' and '23' denote the years 2014, 2019 and 2023. This table does not reflect any notional changes between the 2011 election and the 2014 election. 'Minor Nat.' includes independent nationalists and
Aontú Aontú (; "Unity") is a conservative Irish republican political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It has been led by Peadar Tóibín since its foundation in January 2019. The party holds socially conservative ...
. 'Minor Un.' includes independent unionists, NI21 and
UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member ...
. 'Minor Other' includes other independents and Labour Alternative.


Local Government Districts (1973-2015)


Local Government Districts (1973)

The previous set of 26 councils, which preceded the current set of 11 councils, are shown on the below map. They had 583 wards in total - meaning 583 councillors, representing 102 District Electoral Areas.


History

The current pattern of 11 local government districts was established on 1 April 2015, as a result of the reform process that started in 2005. The previous pattern of local government in Northern Ireland, with 26 councils, was established in 1973 by the
Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 The Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 (c. 9 (N.I.)) was an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, passed in 1971 to replace the previous system of local authorities established by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1 ...
and the
Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 The Local Government (Northern Ireland) Act 1972 (c. 9 (N.I.)) was an act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland that constituted district councils to administer the twenty-six local government districts created by the Local Government (Bounda ...
to replace the previous system established by the
Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 ( 61 & 62 Vict. c. 37) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that established a system of local government in Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots diale ...
. The system was based on the recommendations of the Macrory Report, of June 1970, which presupposed the continued existence of the
Government of Northern Ireland A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
to act as a regional-level authority. From 1921 to 1973, Northern Ireland was divided into six
administrative counties An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until 1973 in Northern Ireland, 2002 in the Republic of Ireland. They are now abolished, although most Northern ...
(subdivided into urban and rural districts) and two county boroughs. The counties and county boroughs continue to exist for the purposes of lieutenancy and shrievalty. This system, with the abolition of rural districts, remains the model for local government in the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
. (See also List of rural and urban districts in Northern Ireland for more details)


Elections

Councillors are elected for a four-year term of office under the
single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...
(STV) system. Elections were last held on 18 May 2023. To qualify for election, a councillor candidate must be: * at least 18 years of age, and * a
Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the British Commonwealth or simply the Commonwealth, is an International organization, international association of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, 56 member states, the vast majo ...
or
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
citizen In addition, they must either: * be a local elector for the district, or * have, during the whole of the 12-month period prior to the election, either owned or occupied land in the district, or else resided or worked in the district The results of the three elections held since the introduction of the 11 new districts in 2014-15 are as follows.


Combinations

The districts are combined for various purposes.


Eurostat NUTS level 3

In the
Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS () is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003, is developed and regulated by the European ...
(NUTS), Northern Ireland is divided into five parts at level 3


Former education and library boards

There were five education and library boards (ELBs) in Northern Ireland. As part of the Review of Public Administration process, the library functions of the ELBs were taken over by a new body, the Northern Ireland Library Authority (branded Libraries NI) in April 2009. The education and skills functions were centralised into a single Education Authority for Northern Ireland in April 2015. The boards were as follows:


Former health and social services boards

There were four health and social services boards which were replaced by a single Health and Social Care Board in April 2009. The former health and social services boards were as follows:


Reform

In June 2002, the
Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive (Irish language, Irish: ''Feidhmeannas Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Executive'') is the devolution, devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branc ...
established a Review of Public Administration to review the arrangements for the accountability, development, administration and delivery of public services. Among its recommendations were a reduction in the number of districts. In 2005
Peter Hain Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain, (born 16 February 1950), is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State ...
, the
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland The secretary of state for Northern Ireland (; ), also referred to as Northern Ireland Secretary or SoSNI, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Northern Ireland Office. The offi ...
, announced proposals to reduce the number of councils to seven. The names and boundaries of the seven districts were announced in March 2007. In March 2008 the restored Northern Executive agreed to create eleven new councils instead of the original seven. The first elections were due to take place in May 2011. However, by May 2010 disagreements among parties in the executive over district boundaries were expected to delay the reforms until 2015. In June 2010 the proposed reforms were abandoned following the failure of the Northern Ireland Executive to reach agreement. However, on 12 March 2012, the
Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive (Irish language, Irish: ''Feidhmeannas Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Executive'') is the devolution, devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branc ...
published its programme for government, which included a commitment to reduce the number of councils in Northern Ireland to 11.


See also

* List of districts in Northern Ireland by religion or religion brought up in *
List of districts in Northern Ireland by national identity This is a list of local government districts in Northern Ireland by national identity. In 2011 the decennial Census in the United Kingdom, UK Census asked respondents for the first time "How would you describe your national identity?” In No ...
* Political make-up of local councils in Northern Ireland *
Local government in England Local government in England broadly consists of three layers: civil parishes, local authorities, and regional authorities. Every part of England is governed by at least one local authority, but parish councils and regional authorities do not ex ...
*
Local government in Scotland Local government in Scotland comprises thirty-two local authorities, commonly referred to as ''councils''. Each council provides public services, including education, social care, waste management, libraries and planning. Councils receive th ...
*
Local government in Wales Local government in Wales is primarily undertaken by the twenty-two principal councils. The councils are Unitary authority, unitary authorities, meaning they are responsible for providing local government services within their Principal areas of ...
*
Local government in the Republic of Ireland The functions of local government in the Republic of Ireland are mostly exercised by thirty-one local authorities, termed County, City, or City and County Councils. The principal decision-making body in each of the thirty-one local authorities ...


Tables relating to the old 26 council system

*
List of districts in Northern Ireland by national identity This is a list of local government districts in Northern Ireland by national identity. In 2011 the decennial Census in the United Kingdom, UK Census asked respondents for the first time "How would you describe your national identity?” In No ...


Notes


References


External links


Local councils in Northern Ireland
NI Direct (Archived)
NI Local Government AssociationReview of Public Administration NILocal Government Boundaries Commissioner for Northern Ireland
(Archived)

DOE NI (Archived)

CAIN Web Service (University of Ulster)

CAIN Web Service (University of Ulster)
Northern Ireland Councillor's Handbook
Local Government Staff Commission for Northern Ireland (Archived)
Map of all UK local authorities
Office for National Statistics, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Local Government In Northern Ireland