Elections to Down District Council were held on 15 May 1985 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 23 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;">UUP</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;">Workers Party</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| <span style="black;">Others</span> |- |align="left"|Ballynahinch |bgcolor="#99FF66"|40.5 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|2 |33.3 |2 |18.9 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |7.3 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Downpatrick |bgcolor="#99FF66"|57.4 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|4 |16.3 |1 |0.0 |0 |9.9 |1 |9.1 |1 |7.3 |0 |7 |- |align="left"|Newcastle |bgcolor="#99FF66"|40.8 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |22.1 |1 |12.0 |1 |14.0 |1 |5.8 |0 |5.3 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Rowallane |22.4 |1 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|55.7 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |21.9 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |5 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |41.6 |10 |30.3 |7 |12.2 |3 |6.5 |1 |4.2 |1 |5.2 |0 |23 |-
1985: 2 x SDLP, 2 x UUP, 1 x DUP
1985: 4 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x Workers' Party
1985: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x DUP
1985: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP