Turnout: 70.80%
About this election
The 2017 Danish municipal elections, held on 21 November 2017, chose the councils of Denmark's 98 municipalities (kommuner), the powerful local authorities that run schools, childcare, elder care, roads and much of the welfare state. They were a strong night for the Social Democrats, who gained seats and mayoralties across the country and reasserted themselves as the dominant force in Danish local government.
Each municipality elects its council (kommunalbestyrelse) by proportional representation for a four-year term; the councils then choose a mayor (borgmester), the most important locally elected office in Denmark. Alongside the national parties, purely local lists (lokallister) contest many municipalities and collectively win a substantial share of the vote, especially in smaller and rural councils. Municipal politics is highly consensual and turns mainly on local services rather than national ideology.
The Social Democrats won about 32.5% of the national municipal vote and 842 council seats, gaining ground, while Venstre took roughly 23% and 688 seats. The Conservatives and the Danish People's Party each polled around 8.8%, and the Red–Green Alliance and Socialist People's Party made gains in the cities. Local lists together won close to a tenth of the vote. The Social Democrats led the municipal vote in all five regions.
Turnout was 70.8%, high for a local election, helped by the simultaneous regional vote. The map above shows the largest party by region, aggregating the municipal results to the five regions; the full breakdown, including the pooled local lists, is available on click.
The Social Democrats emerged with 47 mayoralties, the most of any party, cementing their grip on local government — including the prestigious Lord Mayoralty of Copenhagen. The strong local showing prefigured the party's return to national power in 2019 and underlined the resilience of Denmark's two big traditional parties at the municipal level even as the national party system fragmented.
Official results from Statistics Denmark (Danmarks Statistik) — dst.dk/valg. The map aggregates the municipal results to the five regions.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.