Elections to Ards Borough Council were held on 7 June 2001 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 /> !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;">Alliance</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">SDLP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| <span style="black;">Others</span> |- |align="left"|Ards East |N/A |2 |N/A |3 |N/A |1 |N/A |0 |N/A |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Ards West |36.9 |3 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|42.2 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|2 |18.5 |1 |0.0 |0 |2.4 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Newtownards |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|37.5 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|2 |33.3 |2 |12.2 |1 |0.0 |0 |17.0 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Peninsula |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|36.8 |bgcolor="#D46A4C"|2 |17.9 |1 |19.2 |1 |12.5 |1 |13.6 |0 |5 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |37.0 |9 |31.7 |8 |16.7 |4 |3.9 |1 |10.7 |0 |23 |-
1997: 4 x UUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance<br /> 2001: 3 x DUP, 2 x DUP, 1 x Alliance<br /> 1997-2001 Change: DUP gain from UUP
1997: 3 x UUP, 2 x Alliance, 1 x DUP<br /> 2001: 3 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 1 x Alliance<br /> 1997-2001 Change: DUP (two seats) gain from UUP and Alliance
1997: 2 x UUP, 2 x Independent Unionist, 1 x DUP, 1 x Alliance<br /> 2001: 2 x DUP, 2 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x Independent Unionist<br /> 1997-2001 Change: DUP gain from Independent Unionist, Independent Unionist becomes Independent
1997: 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP<br /> 2001: 2 x DUP, 1 x UUP, 1 x Alliance, 1 x SDLP<br /> 1997-2001 Change: No change