The governing Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) won in a landslide, securing an absolute majority for the first time since 1982.

This came to the detriment of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which conversely suffered its worst result since 1982.

Prior to amendments made in 2014, the Burgenland constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government (state councillors, German: Landesräten) be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz.

The 36 seats of the Landtag of Burgenland are elected via open list proportional representation in a two-step process.

[2] For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 4 percent state-wide electoral threshold.