The council was made up of 30 councillors, elected every four years from five electoral areas and held its meetings in The Guildhall.

The rural district covered an area around the county borough, roughly corresponding to the baronies of Tirkeeran and North West Liberties of Londonderry.

[5] The College of Arms document states that the original arms of the City of Derry were ye picture of death (or a skeleton) on a moissy stone & in ye dexter point a castle and that upon grant of a charter of incorporation and the renaming of the city as Londonderry in that year the first mayor had requested the addition of a "chief of London".

The published report found that there was no basis for any of the popular explanations for the skeleton and that it was "purely symbolic and does not refer to any identifiable person".

[11]During much of its history, it has been held by Unionists (largely due to the practice of gerrymandering),[12] but in later years, the majority of mayors were nationalists, reflecting the make-up of the city's population and council.

From 1973 elections to Derry City Council were conducted under the single transferable vote system, and are normally held every four years.

The electoral wards had been drawn and redrawn to ensure a unionist majority on the council even though more voters supported nationalist and republican parties.

The name change led to a temporary unionist boycott of the council which was broken by two UUP councillors, Jim Guy and David Davis.

Unionists also called for the establishment of a separate "Waterside" council covering the East Bank and rural areas, but this was rejected by the Local Government Boundary Commission in 1991.

In the 2011 election, the constituency's voters returned 3 SDLP, 2 Sinn Féin and 1 DUP members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

[17] The area covered by Derry City Council had a population of 107,877 residents according to the 2011 Northern Ireland census.