Local elections of 1981 to the Isle of Wight County Council, a county council in south east England, were held on 7 May 1981. The whole council was up for election, with boundary changes since the last election in 1977, which increased the number of seats by one.[1] The election resulted in a council with Liberal members holding more than half of the seats.
This result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the council after the elections:
| valign=top colspan="2" style="width: 230px" | Party | valign=top style="width: 30px" | Previous council | valign=top style="width: 30px" | New council |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 7 | 27 | |||
| Conservatives | 23 | 12 | |||
| Independent | 8 | 4 | |||
| Residents | 3 | 0 | |||
| Labour | 1 | 0 | |||
| Total | 42 | 43 | |||
| Working majority | |||||