The 2021 Northern Ireland Census marked the first time since records began where the Catholic share of the population was larger than the combined Protestant share. In 2021, over 42 percent of the population classified themselves as Catholic or from a Catholic background, in comparison with 37 percent classified as Protestant or from a Protestant background. Additionally, the share of the population with no religion (or those who did not answer) was 19 percent; larger than any individual Protestant denomination. This marks a significant shift in demographic and societal trends over the past century, as Protestants outnumbered Catholics by roughly 2:1 when Northern Ireland was established in the 1920s. Given the Catholic community's historic tendency to be in favor of a united Ireland, many look to the changing religious composition of the population when assessing the potential for Irish reunification. Religion's historical influence A major development in the history of British rule in ireland was the Plantation of Ulster in the 1600s, where much of the land in the north (historically the most rebellious region) was seized from Irish Catholics and given to Protestant settlers from Britain (predominantly Scots). This helped establish Protestant dominance in the north, created a large section of the population loyal to the British crown, and saw a distinct Ulster-Scots identity develop over time. In the 1920s, the republican movement won independence for 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, however, the six counties in Ulster with the largest Protestant populations remained part of the UK, as Northern Ireland. Following partition, structural inequalities between Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic communities meant that the Protestant population was generally wealthier, better educated, more politically empowered, and had better access to housing, among other advantages. In the 1960s, a civil rights movement then emerged for equal rights and status for both sides of the population, but this quickly turned violent and escalated into a the three-decade long conflict now known as the Troubles.

The Troubles was largely fought between nationalist/republican paramilitaries (mostly Catholic), unionist/loyalist paramilitaries (mostly Protestant), and British security forces (including the police). This is often described as a religious conflict, however it is more accurately described as an ethnic and political conflict, where the Catholic community generally favored Northern Ireland's reunification with the rest of the island, while the Protestant community wished to remain in the UK. Paramilitaries had a large amount of support from their respective communities in the early years of the Troubles, but this waned as the conflict progressed into the 1980s and 1990s. Demographic and societal trends influenced the religious composition of Northern Ireland's population in these decades, as the Catholic community had higher fertility rates than Protestant communities, while the growing secularism has coincided with a decline in those identifying as Protestant - the dip in those identifying as Catholic in the 1970s and 1980s was due to a protest and boycott of the Census. The Troubles came to an end in 1998, and divisions between both sides of the community have drastically fallen, although they have not disappeared completely.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in Northern Ireland by their religion. The estimates are as at census day, 21 March 2021. The religion classification used is a 32-category classification corresponding to the tick box options and write-in responses on the census questionnaire with at least 1,000 responses.

The census collected information on the usually resident population of Northern Ireland on census day (21 March 2021). Initial contact letters or questionnaire packs were delivered to every household and communal establishment, and residents were asked to complete online or return the questionnaire with information as correct on census day. Special arrangements were made to enumerate special groups such as students, members of the Travellers Community, HM Forces personnel etc. The Census Coverage Survey (an independent doorstep survey) followed between 12 May and 29 June 2021 and was used to adjust the census counts for under-enumeration.

This table reports responses for which there are 1,000 or more usual residents.

'Religion' indicates religion, religious denomination or body. 'Catholic' includes those who gave their current religion as Catholic or Roman Catholic.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in Northern Ireland by their religion, and by broad age bands.

The census collected information on the usually resident population of Northern Ireland on census day (21 March 2021). Initial contact letters or questionnaire packs were delivered to every household and communal establishment, and residents were asked to complete online or return the questionnaire with information as correct on census day. Special arrangements were made to enumerate special groups such as students, members of the Travellers Community, HM Forces personnel etc. The Census Coverage Survey (an independent doorstep survey) followed between 12 May and 29 June 2021 and was used to adjust the census counts for under-enumeration.

'Religion' indicates religion, religious denomination or body.

'Age' is age at last birthday.

'Catholic' includes those who gave their current religion as Catholic or Roman Catholic.

Quality assurance report can be found here

This table provides Census 2021 estimates that classify people by Country of birth (12 categories) by Religion (8 categories) for Northern Ireland. The table contains 96 counts.

The census collected information on the usually resident population of Northern Ireland on census day (21 March 2021). Initial contact letters or questionnaire packs were delivered to every household and communal establishment, and residents were asked to complete online or return the questionnaire with information as correct on census day. Special arrangements were made to enumerate special groups such as students, members of the Travellers Community, HM Forces personnel etc. The Census Coverage Survey (an independent doorstep survey) followed between 12 May and 29 June 2021 and was used to adjust the census counts for under-enumeration.

Notes

1. 'EU' is the European Union and is as defined on census day (21 March 2021).
2. People who gave 'Cyprus' as their country of birth are included within the 'Europe: Other EU countries' category.
3. 'Europe: Other Non-EU countries' includes United Kingdom (part not specified) and Ireland (part not specified).
4. 'Religion' indicates religion, religious denomination or body.
5. 'Catholic' includes those who gave their current religion as Catholic or Roman Catholic.

Quality assurance report can be found here

Population by religion by Local Electoral Areas. (Census 2022 Theme 2 Table 4 )Census 2022 table 2.4 is the total population by religion. Details include population by religion. Census 2022 theme 2 is Migration, Ethnicity, Religion and Foreign Languages. For the purposes of Local Authority elections, each county and city is divided into Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) which are constituted on the basis of Orders made under the Local Government Act, 1941. Statutory Instruments 610-638 of 2018 and 6-8, 27-28, 156-157 of 2019 state the current composition of LEAs.In general, LEAs are formed by aggregating Electoral Divisions. However, in a number of cases, Electoral Divisions are split between LEAs and in order to render them suitable for the production of statistics, the CSO has amended some LEA boundaries to ensure that statistical disclosure does not occur. As a result of these amendments, Census 2022 LEAs are comprised of whole Census 2022 Electoral Divisions.Coordinate reference system: Irish Transverse Mercator (EPSG 2157). These boundaries are based on 20m generalised boundaries sourced from Tailte Éireann Open Data Portal. CSO Local Electoral Areas 2022

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and NUTS 3 boundary data (generalised to 100m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 2.4, population by religion. Attributes include population breakdown by religion (e.g. catholic, other religion, no religion). Census 2016 theme 2 represents Migration, Ethnicity and Religion. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. NUTS 3 boundaries generalised to 100m. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) were drawn up by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the European Union. The NUTS classification has been used in EU legislation since 1988, but it was only in 2003 that the EU Member States, the European Parliament and the Commission established the NUTS regions within a legal framework (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003). The Irish NUTS 3 regions comprise the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993 which came into operation on January 1st 1994. The NUTS 2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed to by Eurostat in 1999, are groupings of the Regional Authorities.

In Northern Ireland in the 1960s, widespread inequalities between the Catholic and Protestant communities led to a civil rights campaign, which later developed into a 30-year conflict known as the Troubles. Although Protestants made up around two-thirds of the north's population, they also had disproportionate control of the government and economy. As a result, the unemployment rate among Catholics was around 2.5 times higher than that of Protestants in the early-70s. As the conflict developed, high unemployment among young Catholic men in particular was a major factor in the growth of Republican paramilitary organizations such as the Irish Republican Army. The Fair Employment Act of 1976 sought to undo this inequality by promoting equal opportunities and prohibiting religious discrimination; however, unemployment grew even higher in the 1980s, with over a third of Catholic men unemployed by 1987.

These statistics contain the first phase of main statistics results from Census 2021. This phase provides estimates for a number of census topics, including passports held, ethnic group, national identity, language, and religion.

Data are available for Northern Ireland and the 11 Local Government Districts.

More than 3,500 people were killed as a result of the Troubles in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1998. Of these, over 1,500 were from Northern Ireland's Catholic community, while just under 1,300 were from the Protestant community. Of the 722 people not from Northern Ireland who were killed in the conflict, over 500 were killed in Northern Ireland, while 120 were killed in Britain, 83 were killed in the Republic of Ireland, and 14 were killed elsewhere in Europe.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of the project was to provide machine-readable economic and social history statistics relating to the whole of Ireland for the period 1821-1971. Further information about the project is available on the QUB Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis website.


Main Topics:

The main tables are:
Occupations grouped by counties, age groups and gender (1831-1911)
Occupations grouped by counties, religion and gender (1871-1911)
Occupations grouped by counties, literacy and gender (1871-1911)
All the relevant background material is incorporated either in the documentation files or in the scanned images of the tables of contents, prefaces, and notes in the original source.

Please be advised that there are issues with the Small Area boundary dataset generalised to 20m which affect Small Area 268014010 in Ballygall D, Dublin City. The Small Area boundary dataset generalised to 20m is in the process of being revised and the updated datasets will be available as soon as the boundaries are amended. This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Small Areas national boundary data (generalised to 20m) produced by Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi). The layer represents Census 2016 theme 2.4, population by religion. Attributes include population breakdown by religion (e.g. catholic, other religion, no religion). Census 2016 theme 2 represents Migration, Ethnicity and Religion. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. The Small Area Boundaries were created with the following credentials. National boundary dataset. Consistent sub-divisions of an ED. Created not to cross some natural features. Defined area with a minimum number of GeoDirectory building address points. Defined area initially created with minimum of 65 – approx. average of around 90 residential address points. Generated using two bespoke algorithms which incorporated the ED and Townland boundaries, ortho-photography, large scale vector data and GeoDirectory data. Before the 2011 census they were split in relation to motorways and dual carriageways. After the census some boundaries were merged and other divided to maintain privacy of the residential area occupants. They are available as generalised and non generalised boundary sets.

This file contains variables from the Religion Theme that was produced by AIRO using data from the census unit at the CSO and the Northern Ireland Research and Statistics Agency (NISRA). This data was developed under the Evidence Based Planning theme of the Ireland Northern Cross Border Cooperation Observatory (INICCO-2) and CrosSPlaN-2 funded research programme.

Irish Travellers (Number) by Sex, Religion and CensusYear

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Population by Religion, CensusYear and Statistic

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This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and NUTS 3 boundary data (generalised to 100m) produced by Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi). The layer represents Census 2016 theme 2.3, the population usually resident in Ireland by usual residence 1 year before Census Day. Attributes include population breakdown by usual residence (e.g. same address, outside Ireland). Census 2016 theme 2 represents Migration, Ethnicity and Religion. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. NUTS 3 boundaries generalised to 100m. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) were drawn up by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the European Union. The NUTS classification has been used in EU legislation since 1988, but it was only in 2003 that the EU Member States, the European Parliament and the Commission established the NUTS regions within a legal framework (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003). The Irish NUTS 3 regions comprise the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993 which came into operation on January 1st 1994. The NUTS 2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed to by Eurostat in 1999, are groupings of the Regional Authorities.

Ireland: Non religious people as percent of the population: The latest value from is percent, unavailable from percent in . In comparison, the world average is 0.0 percent, based on data from countries. Historically, the average for Ireland from to is percent. The minimum value, percent, was reached in while the maximum of percent was recorded in .

Population (Number) by Religion, Towns by Size, CensusYear and Sex

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The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey was launched in the autumn of 1998. Its mission has been to monitor the attitudes and behaviour of people in Northern Ireland during the late 1990s and into the present century, in order to provide a time-series and a public record of how our attitudes and behaviour develop on a wide range of social policy issues. The survey is run on a modular format. Two modules are repeated every year (Political Attitudes and Community Relations), and the rest of the survey varies annually with all the modules designed to be repeated in years to come.

Each year, more than 30 countries participate in the "https://issp.org/" Target="_blank">International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in which the same module of questions is asked cross-nationally. Northern Ireland has taken part in this exercise (via NISA) since 1989. The 1998 module covered religion. Full ISSP datasets can be obtained from the Zentralarchiv in Koln, Germany, where the datasets from the member countries are assembled.

Socio-economic inequalities between Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities in the 1970s were not only reflected in significant differences in unemployment rates, but also in job types. For example, Catholics were more likely to be employed in manual jobs, whereas Protestants were much more likely to have non-manual, so-called "white collar" jobs. This was due to a number of factors, particularly employment discrimination, but also greater access to higher education among Protestants, and a higher concentration of white-collar job opportunities in Protestant areas.

This table provides Census 2021 estimates that classify people by Economic activity by Religion (8 categories) for Northern Ireland. The table contains 112 counts.

The census collected information on the usually resident population of Northern Ireland on census day (21 March 2021). Initial contact letters or questionnaire packs were delivered to every household and communal establishment, and residents were asked to complete online or return the questionnaire with information as correct on census day. Special arrangements were made to enumerate special groups such as students, members of the Travellers Community, HM Forces personnel etc. The Census Coverage Survey (an independent doorstep survey) followed between 12 May and 29 June 2021 and was used to adjust the census counts for under-enumeration.

'Religion' indicates religion, religious denomination or body. 'Catholic' includes those who gave their current religion as Catholic or Roman Catholic.

Quality assurance report can be found here