Elections to Derry City Council were held on 15 May 1985 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used five district electoral areas to elect a total of 30 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 /> ! % <br /> !Cllrs<br /> !rowspan=2|Total<br />Cllrs<br /> |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">SDLP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">DUP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">Sinn Féin</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">UUP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">IIP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| <span style="black;">Others</span> |- |align="left"|Cityside |bgcolor="#99FF66"|46.5 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |0.0 |0 |39.6 |3 |0.0 |0 |10.0 |0 |3.9 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Northland |bgcolor="#99FF66"|53.7 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |5.4 |0 |15.5 |1 |11.3 |1 |10.9 |1 |3.2 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Rural |bgcolor="#99FF66"|38.2 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |29.3 |2 |6.4 |0 |22.9 |2 |3.2 |0 |0.0 |0 |7 |- |align="left"|Shantallow |bgcolor="#99FF66"|58.8 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|4 |0.0 |0 |25.3 |1 |0.0 |0 |10.6 |0 |5.3 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Waterside |18.5 |1 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|42.4 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|3 |6.2 |0 |24.2 |2 |3.3 |0 |5.4 |0 |6 |- |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |41.9 |14 |17.3 |5 |17.1 |5 |13.1 |5 |7.2 |1 |3.4 |0 |30 |-
1985: 3 x SDLP, 3 x Sinn Féin
1985: 3 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x IIP
1985: 3 x SDLP, 2 x DUP, 2 x UUP
1985: 4 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin
1985: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 1 x SDLP