2022 Scottish local elections

2022 Scottish local elections

← 2017 5 May 2022 (2022-05-05) 2027 →
All 1,227 seats to 32 Scottish councils
Turnout	44.8% (2.1%)[1]
First party Second party Third party   Leader Nicola Sturgeon Anas Sarwar Douglas Ross Party SNP Labour Conservative Last election 431 seats, 32.30% 262 seats, 20.16% 276 seats, 25.30% Seats won 453 282 214 Seat change 22 20 63 First preferences 633,252 403,243 364,824 First preferences (%) 34.1% 21.8% 19.7% Swing (pp) 1.8% 1.6% 5.6%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader None Alex Cole-Hamilton Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie (co-leaders) Party Independent Liberal Democrats Scottish Green Last election 168 seats, 10.4% 67 seats, 6.82% 19 seats, 4.1% Seats won 152 87 35 Seat change 15 20 16 First preferences 156,815 159,815 110,791 First preferences (%) 8.4% 8.6% 6.0% Swing (pp) 2.0% 1.7% 1.8%
Popular vote by council areas. Council controls post elections

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 was 44.8%.^[1]

Compared to the previous elections of 2017, the Scottish National Party (SNP) gained seats and maintained its position as largest party in local government, winning 36.9% of the seats available. Scottish Labour (winning 22.9% of seats) gained seats, whilst the Scottish Conservatives (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 and the Scottish Greens 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,^[2] whilst Labour won overall control of West Dunbartonshire Council.^[3] Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross blamed his party's bad results on the partygate scandal.^[4]

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.