Elections for the Scottish district councils were held on Tuesday 7 May 1974, for both the new regional and district councils, between the two United Kingdom general elections of February and October in that same year.
These were the first elections held to the 53 district councils established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The Labour Party did reasonably well and the Scottish National Party (SNP) did not. The councillors acted as "shadow" councils until May 1975, when the provisions of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 came into effect.
|- !colspan=2|Parties !Votes ! % !Wards |- | | 658,089 | 38.5 | 172 |- | | 488,905 | 28.6 | 112 |- | | 215,502 | 12.6 | 18 |- | | 87,333 | 5.1 | 11 |- | style="width: 10px" bgcolor=| | style="text-align: left;" scope="row" | Independent/Other | 261,372 | 15.3 | 119 |- ! colspan=2| Total ! 1,711,201 ! 100.0 ! 432
|- !colspan=2|Parties !Votes !% !Wards |- | | 619,531 | 38.4 | 428 |- | | 433,287 | 26.8 | 241 |- | | 200,307 | 12.4 | 62 |- | | 80,232 | 5.0 | 17 |- | style="width: 10px" bgcolor=| | style="text-align: left;" scope="row" | Independent/Other | 280,946 | 17.5 | 362 |- ! colspan=2|Total ! 1,614,303 ! 100.0 ! 1,110
Note: Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles were governed at the district level as unitary authorities, meaning they were not included in any larger region.
The seats on each district council after the election were as follows: