Elections to Ballymoney Borough Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used three district electoral areas to elect a total of 16 councillors.
<small>Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.</small>
|- class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward ! % <br /> !Cllrs<br /> ! % <br /> !Cllrs<br /> ! %<br /> !Cllrs<br /> ! %<br /> !Cllrs<br /> ! %<br /> !Cllrs<br /> !rowspan=2|Total<br />Cllrs<br /> |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">DUP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">UUP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">SDLP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">Alliance</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| <span style="black;">Others</span> |- |align="left"|Area A |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|53.8 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|2 |27.2 |1 |0.0 |0 |19.0 |1 |0.0 |0 |4 |- |align="left"|Area B |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|31.6 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|3 |30.3 |2 |21.3 |2 |0.0 |0 |16.8 |1 |8 |- |align="left"|Area C |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|42.3 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|2 |10.8 |0 |11.6 |0 |0.0 |0 |35.3 |2 |4 |- |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |40.3 |7 |24.0 |3 |9.9 |2 |8.1 |1 |17.7 |3 |16 |-
1977: 2 x DUP, 2 x UUP<br /> 1981: 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance<br /> 1977-1981 Change: Alliance gain from UUP
1977: 3 x UUP, 3 x SDLP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Independent<br /> 1981: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 2 x SDLP, 1 x Independent<br /> 1977-1981 Change: DUP (two seats) gain from UUP and SDLP
1977: 2 x Independent, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist<br /> 1981: 2 x DUP, 2 x Independent<br /> 1977-1981 Change: DUP (two seats) gain from Alliance and Independent Unionist