Elections to Craigavon Borough Council were held on 20 May 1981 on the same day as the other Northern Irish local government elections. The election used four district electoral areas to elect a total of 25 councillors.
Election results
Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes.
Districts summary
|- class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left"|Ward ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs ! % !Cllrs !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | RC !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Alliance !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Area A |14.8 |1 |12.4 |0 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|49.9 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|3 |19.8 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |3.1 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Area B |bgcolor="40BFF5"|36.5 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |30.7 |2 |16.5 |1 |6.7 |0 |9.5 |1 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |7 |- |align="left"|Area C |bgcolor="40BFF5"|26.5 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|2 |22.0 |2 |19.0 |1 |14.2 |1 |6.3 |0 |0.0 |0 |12.0 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Area D |bgcolor="40BFF5"|40.6 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |38.6 |3 |6.9 |0 |0.0 |0 |0.0 |0 |13.8 |1 |0.0 |0 |7 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |30.8 |9 |27.1 |7 |20.8 |5 |9.4 |2 |4.1 |1 |3.9 |1 |3.9 |0 |25 |- |}