Elections to Down District 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;">SDLP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">UUP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">Sinn Féin</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | <span style="color:black;">DUP</span> !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| <span style="black;">Others</span> |- |align="left"|Ballynahinch |bgcolor="#99FF66"|39.4 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|2 |24.0 |1 |13.6 |1 |23.0 |1 |0.0 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Downpatrick |bgcolor="#99FF66"|52.7 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|4 |9.3 |1 |21.1 |1 |2.4 |0 |14.5 |1 |7 |- |align="left"|Newcastle |bgcolor="#99FF66"|44.6 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |15.7 |1 |27.6 |2 |9.0 |0 |3.1 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Rowallane |25.1 |1 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|41.8 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |4.4 |0 |26.2 |1 |2.5 |0 |5 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |41.2 |10 |21.8 |6 |17.2 |4 |14.3 |2 |5.5 |1 |23 |-
1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP<br /> 2001: 2 x SDLP, 1 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x Sinn Féin<br /> 1997-2001 Change: Sinn Féin gain from SDLP
1997: 5 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP<br /> 2001: 4 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x Independent<br /> 1997-2001 Change: Independent gain from SDLP
1997: 3 x SDLP, 1 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP, 1 x Women's Coalition<br /> 2001: 3 x SDLP, 2 x Sinn Féin, 1 x UUP<br /> 1997-2001 Change: Sinn Féin gain from Women's Coalition
1997: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP<br /> 2001: 3 x UUP, 1 x DUP, 1 x SDLP<br /> 1997-2001 Change: No change