The 2022 Scottish local elections were held on 5 May 2022, as part of the 2022 United Kingdom local elections. All 1,226 seats across all 32 Scottish local authorities were up for election and

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

was 44.8%. Compared to the previous elections of 2017, the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from th ...

(SNP) gained seats and maintained its position as largest party in local government, winning 36.9% of the seats available.

Scottish Labour Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak of ...

(winning 22.9% of seats) gained seats, whilst the

Scottish Conservatives The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party ( gd, Pàrtaidh Tòraidheach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Tory an Unionist Pairty), often known simply as the Scottish Conservatives and colloquially as the Scottish Tories, is a centre-right political par ...

(who won 17.5%) lost many seats, being displaced by Scottish Labour as the second-largest party. Independent candidates also lost seats, whilst the

Scottish Liberal Democrats The Scottish Liberal Democrats ( gd, Pàrtaidh Libearal Deamocratach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Leeberal Democrats) is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, a part of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats. The party currently holds 4 of ...

and the

Scottish Greens The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; gd, Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Green Pairtie) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the ...

increased their vote share and gained seats across Scotland. At the 2017 election, no council was won by an overall majority of any party. In the 2022 election, the SNP increased its vote share and secured an overall majority on Dundee City Council, whilst Labour won overall control of West Dunbartonshire Council. Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross blamed his party's bad results on the partygate scandal. The Alba Party and Scottish Family Party ran candidates in around 100 seats each but failed to win any. The Rubbish Party and West Dunbartonshire Community Party held their singular seats, whilst the British Unionist Party gained their first seat from the Conservatives.

Background

The last election was in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, which was held five years after the 2012 election, instead of four was changed in order to avoid clashing with the

2016 Scottish Parliament election The 2016 Scottish parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the fifth election held since the devolved parliament was established in 1999. It was the first parliamentary electio ...

Boundaries Scotland Boundaries Scotland is an independent body in Scotland created as the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. According to its website, it is responsible for: carrying out reviews of boun ...

have conducted a review of electoral arrangements for six councils under the terms of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018. The

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyr ...

's Local Government Committee accepted the new boundaries in

Na h-Eileanan an Iar The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east a ...

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

and

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the n ...

, but recommended against approval of the changes in

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

and

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

Voting system and eligibility to vote

Councillors are elected to represent multi-member wards using the

Single Transferable Vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

(STV) method, which has been used for all elections to local authorities in Scotland since the 2007 election. Previous to this election, in all votes since 2007, wards have been sized such that either 3 or 4 councillors are elected per ward. However, this election was different. The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 and the

Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 Acts of the Scottish Parliament See also *List of Acts of the Scottish Parliament References *Current Law Statutes Annotated 2020 {{UK legislation 2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global socia ...

have given

increased flexibility to vary the size of wards. Mainland wards may now have between 2 and 5 councillors, and single councillor wards are permitted where such a ward includes an inhabited island. For these elections wards represented by one, two or five councillors will only be contested in the four council areas in which ward boundaries have been redrawn after 2017, namely Na h-Eileanan an Iar, North Ayrshire, Orkney and Shetland. Overall, the 32 local authorities had one one-seat district (Arran), seven two-seat districts and three five-seat districts (North Ayrshire) in addition to the bulk of the members elected in three and four seat districts. All registered electors (

British citizen British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...

s and all other foreign nationals with

leave to remain Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) or permanent residency (PR) is an immigration status granted to a person who does not hold the right of abode in the United Kingdom (UK), but who has been admitted to the UK without any time limit on their stay a ...

, including refugees) who are aged 16 or over on polling day are entitled to vote in the local elections. A person who has two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) can register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, and can vote in the local elections for the two different local councils. Individuals must have been registered to vote by midnight on 18 April 2022. The deadlines to register for a postal vote and

proxy vote Proxy voting is a form of voting whereby a member of a decision-making body may delegate their voting power to a representative, to enable a vote in absence. The representative may be another member of the same body, or external. A person so d ...

were 19 and 26 April 2022, respectively.

Results

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9; ! scope="col" colspan="2" rowspan=2 , Party ! scope="col" colspan="3" , First-preference votes ! scope="col" colspan="2" , Councils ! scope="col" colspan="2" , 2017 seats ! scope="col" colspan="3" , 2022 seats , - ! scope="col" , Count ! scope="col" , Of total (%) ! scope="col" , Change ! scope="col" , Count ! scope="col" , Change ! scope="col" , Count ! scope="col" , Of total (%) ! scope="col" , Count ! scope="col" , Of total (%) ! scope="col" , Change , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , No overall control , colspan=3 , 27 , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 2 , colspan=2 , colspan=3 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , SNP , 633,252 , 34.1% , 1.8% , 1 , style="background-color:#dfd;", 1 , 431 , 37.0% , 453 , 35.1% , style="background-color:#dfd;", 22 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Labour , 403,243 , 21.7% , 1.6% , 1 , style="background-color:#dfd;", 1 , 262 , 21.4% , 281 , 23.1% , style="background-color:#dfd;", 19 , - , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

, 364,824 , 19.6% , 5.7% , 0 , , 276 , 22.5% , 214 , 17.5% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8", 62 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Liberal Democrats , 159,815 , 8.6% , 1.7% , 0 , , 67 , 5.5% , 87 , 7.1% , style="background-color:#dfd;", 20 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Independents , 156,815 , 8.4% , 2.0% , 3 , , 168 , 14.1% , 152 , 12.2% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 15 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

, 110,791 , 6.0% , 1.9% , 0 , , 19 , 1.6% , 35 , 2.9% , style="background-color:#dfd", 16 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kin ...

, 12,335 , 0.7% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Scottish Family , 6,857 , 0.4% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , West Dunbartonshire Community , 1,462 , 0.1% , , 0 , , , , 1 , 0.1% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Scottish Socialist , 1,058 , 0.1% , 0.1% , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

TUSC Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is a socialist electoral alliance launched in Britain for the 2010 general election. TUSC's co-founder was the RMT union general secretary Bob Crow. Members of the PCS, NUT, FBU and POA uni ...

, 1,022 , 0.1% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

British Unionist Unionism in the United Kingdom, also referred to as British unionism, is a political ideology favouring the continued unity of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as one sovereign state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort ...

, 859 , 0.1% , , 0 , , , , 1 , 0.1% , style=background-color:#dfd, 1 , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Rubbish , 787 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , 1 , 0.1% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Independence for Scotland , 742 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

, 698 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Freedom Alliance , 555 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Volt UK Volt UK (officially: Volt United Kingdom) is a pro-European political party in the United Kingdom. It is the British branch of Volt Europa, a political movement that operates on a European level. History Volt UK was founded in London on 6 J ...

, 421 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Socialist Labour , 381 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 members of Parliament and was the largest p ...

, 372 , 0.0% , 0.2% , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Women's Equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

, 228 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

, 222 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

, 154 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

, 119 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Pensioner's , 75 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives f ...

, 74 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

Workers The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic reg ...

, 61 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" , Scottish Eco-Federalist , 24 , 0.0% , , 0 , , , , , 0.0% , , - class=sortbottom style="background-color:#E9E9E9; font-weight:bold;" ! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , Total , 1,889,658 , 100.0 , ±0.0 , 32 , , 1,223 , 1,227 , 1,227 , 100.00 ,

Councils

2022 results

The table below shows the number of seats won by each party. Note that three seats (one in Shetland, two in the Outer Hebrides) remain vacant as there were fewer candidates than seats available in some wards. Parties with coloured cells are part of governing coalitions or are the council administration. The party of the council leader is bold and marked with an asterisk (*).

2017 results

The table shows the number of councillors won by each party in the 2017 Scottish local elections.

Previous composition

This table shows the composition of councils directly prior to the 2022 election. Note that some seats are currently vacant and will not be filled before the election. Included in the Green totals are two councillors who have publicly joined the party since the election (denoted by ^†), but continue to sit as independents.

Opinion polling

Notes

References

External links

Scotland council elections 2022: A really simple guide

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

. {{2022 United Kingdom local elections 2022 2022 United Kingdom local elections