Elections to Down District Council were held on 17 May 1989 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.
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 !rowspan=2|TotalCllrs |- class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | SDLP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | UUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | DUP !colspan=2 bgcolor="" | Alliance !colspan=2 bgcolor="white"| Others |- |align="left"|Ballynahinch |bgcolor="#99FF66"|45.3 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|2 |36.1 |2 |13.8 |1 |0.0 |0 |4.8 |0 |5 |- |align="left"|Downpatrick |bgcolor="#99FF66"|65.1 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|5 |14.9 |1 |0.0 |0 |7.2 |1 |12.8 |0 |7 |- |align="left"|Newcastle |bgcolor="#99FF66"|54.2 |bgcolor="#99FF66"|4 |28.1 |2 |6.9 |0 |0.0 |0 |10.8 |0 |6 |- |align="left"|Rowallane |26.9 |1 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|50.7 |bgcolor="40BFF5"|3 |16.1 |1 |0.0 |0 |6.3 |0 |5 |- class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" |align="left"| Total |49.2 |12 |31.1 |8 |8.5 |2 |2.2 |1 |9.0 |0 |23 |- |}