Both the Liberal Democrats and Labour lost five seats to hold 10 and three respectively while the Greens won their first representation on the council.

Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the single transferable vote (STV) electoral system – a form of proportional representation – where candidates are ranked in order of preference.

The Act allowed single- or two-member wards to be created to provide better representation of island communities.

The proposals would have made no changes to the boundaries or numbers of councillors in Cromarty Firth; Fort William and Ardnamurchan; Nairn and Cawdor and Thurso and North West Caithness.

The boundaries in Eilean a' Cheò (Scottish Gaelic for 'Isle of Skye') and North, West and Central Sutherland would have remained the same but the numbers of councillors would have been reduced from four to three and from three to two respectively.

However, the proposals in Highland were rejected by the Scottish Parliament and the 21 wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 remained in place.

This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at the dissolution of Scotland's councils.

The SNP, the Liberal Democrats and independent candidate Hugh Morrison retained the seats they had won at the previous election.

Cllr Rhind was previously elected to represent the ward following a by-election in 2017 triggered by the resignation of former Liberal Democrat councillor Jamie Stone.

Cllr Munro was previously elected to represent the ward following a by-election in 2020 triggered by the resignation of former independent councillor Ronald McDonald.

Cllr Fraser was previously elected to represent the ward following a by-election in 2021 triggered by the death of former Conservative councillor George Cruikshank.

Source:[64][65] The SNP, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and independent councillor Duncan MacPherson retained they seats they had won at the previous election.

Source:[68][69] The SNP retained one of the two seats they had won at the previous election while the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and independent candidate Thomas MacLennan gained seats from the SNP, the Conservatives and former independent councillor Andrew Baxter.

[20] As a result, the SNP group formed a coalition with independent councillors to run the council.

[72] Conservative councillor Andrew Jarvie resigned from the party to sit as an independent in December 2022 following a row over Avonlea Children's Home in Wick.

[73] Cllr Jarvie and four other independent councillors – namely Cllrs Duncan MacPherson, Maxine Morley-Smith, Matthew Reiss and Jim McGillivray – formed a new political group known as the Highlands Alliance in October 2023.

[32] Tain and Easter Ross Liberal Democrat councillor Sarah Rawlings resigned in June 2023.

[78] Source:[79][80] Inverness South Liberal Democrat councillor Colin Aitken resigned in February 2024.

[82] Source:[83][84] A second Tain and Easter Ross by-election of the term was called following the death of independent councillor Alasdair Rhind.

[89] This was followed by the "surprise resignations" of Cromarty Firth councillors Pauline Munro and Molly Nolan in June 2024.

[93][94] Source:[95][96] Source:[97][98] Following his successful campaign during the 2024 United Kingdom general election, Fort William and Ardnamurchan councillor Angus MacDonald was elected as MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire and subsequently resigned his council seat.