Turnout: 65.00%
About this election
The 2025 Danish municipal elections, held on 18 November 2025, were a historic setback for the Social Democrats, who fell to what was reported as their weakest municipal result in more than a century and lost a swathe of mayoralties to the resurgent centre-right. Although the party remained narrowly the largest nationally, Venstre took the most mayoralties and the Conservatives continued their advance.
The 98 municipalities each elect a council by proportional representation for four years and then choose a mayor. Local lists remain a major presence. The elections were held alongside the first regional elections under the new four-region structure, and against the backdrop of Mette Frederiksen's broad SVM coalition governing nationally — a government that had cost the Social Democrats support on their left flank.
The Social Democrats won about 23.2% of the national municipal vote and 599 council seats, sharply down, while Venstre took roughly 17.9% and the Conservatives about 12.7%, with the Socialist People's Party rising to around 11%. Crucially, Venstre won 42 mayoralties to the Social Democrats' 26 — a dramatic reversal — with the Conservatives on about 20. The Social Democrats nonetheless remained the largest party in four of the five regions, with Venstre leading in Southern Denmark.
Turnout was around 65%. The map above shows the largest party by region, aggregating the municipal results to the five regions; the full breakdown, including pooled local lists, is available on click.
The loss of 18 mayoralties was a stinging rebuke to the Social Democrats and was widely read as a verdict on the unpopular compromises of the national coalition, including welfare and public-sector reforms. Venstre and the Conservatives emerged as the big winners locally, while the green left's gains in the cities pointed to a more fragmented and competitive local landscape.
The 2025 result capped a steady municipal decline for the Social Democrats across the three elections covered here: 32.41% and 842 council seats in 2017, 28.40% and 755 in 2021, then 23.17% and 599 in 2025 — nearly a third of their seats gone in eight years. Venstre's vote also drifted down (23.09%, 21.18%, 17.86%), yet in 2025 the party converted its share far more efficiently into power, taking the most mayoralties. The clearest gainers over the period sat at the party system's edges: the Green Left almost doubled from 5.72% to 11.06%, the Conservatives climbed from 8.79% to a 2021 peak of 15.24% before easing to 12.70%, and the Danish People's Party — written off after its collapse — returned to 5.92%. Turnout fell at each election, from 70.8% to 67.2% to about 65%.
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.