The centre-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) was the clear winner, taking 47.9% of votes, an eleven percentage point increase from 2013.

The SPÖ fell one seat short of an absolute majority, and held exploratory talks with the three other parties in the Landtag.

[1] Prior to amendments made in 2017, the Carinthian constitution mandated that cabinet positions in the state government be allocated between parties proportionally in accordance with the share of votes won by each; this is known as Proporz.

In June 2017, the SPÖ, ÖVP, and Greens (all members of the government) as well as Team Carinthia voted to amend the constitution to remove this requirement.

For parties to receive any representation in the Landtag, they must either win at least one seat in a constituency directly, or clear a 5 percent state-wide electoral threshold.