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 table provides Census 2021 estimates that classify people by Country of birth (12 categories) by Religion or religion brought up in for Northern Ireland. The table contains 48 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

This table provides Census 2021 estimates that classify people by National identity (8 categories) by Religion or religion brought up in for Northern Ireland. The table contains 32 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

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.

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.

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 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

The Good Friday Agreement, or the Belfast Agreement, was the culmination of the Northern Ireland peace process that brought about the end of the 30-year conflict known as the Troubles. The peace process itself involved years of negotiations between the leading nationalist parties (generally seen as representing Northern Ireland's Catholic community), unionist parties (generally seen as representing Northern Ireland's Protestant community), representatives of the British, Irish, and U.S. governments, as well as paramilitary organizations. Terms of the Good Friday Agreement The Agreement involved a series of proposals touching aspects such as demilitarization, identity, devolution, and cross-community cooperation. The Agreement laid the framework for the Northern Ireland government to be reinstated after a 25-year absence, with mechanisms in place to ensure power-sharing and fair representation between Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities. It also reaffirmed Northern Ireland's position as an equal part of the United Kingdom, but stipulated that the people of Northern Ireland may change this through a referendum (generally assumed to mean reunification with the Republic of Ireland), while it also extended British and Irish citizenship to anybody born in the north. In terms of demilitarization and ending the violence, the Agreement stipulated that all complying paramilitary groups were to disarm and cease operations, and it ensured the British Army presence in Northern Ireland would be significantly reduced. To many, the most controversial aspect of the Agreement was the early release of convicted paramilitary personnel from organization who signed the Agreement, regardless of the charge or length of their remaining sentence - for this reason, the hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) did not support the Agreement. The referendum The Good Friday Agreement was signed by the respective parties on April 10, 1998 (albeit, without the support from the DUP and some smaller paramilitary groups), and was then put to the public on both sides of the Irish border in referenda on May 22, 1998. The vote passed easily on both sides, with ** percent support in the north, and ** percent in the south. In Northern Ireland, the background of voters was not recorded, and therefore there is no official breakdown of the vote by religious background, yet, the most widely accepted estimates suggest that support in Catholic communities may have been as high as ** percent, while support in Protestant communities was roughly ** percent - again, largely in opposition to the early release of paramilitary prisoners.

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.

Political inequality between Catholic and Protestant communities was one of the key social issues in the 1960s in Northern Ireland, and the civil rights campaign that emerged in the pursuit of equal representation would eventually give way to the 30-year conflict that became known as the Troubles. Following Irish independence from Britain in the 1920s, the island of Ireland was partitioned and the six counties of Ireland with the largest Protestant populations remained in the UK as Northern Ireland. At the time of partition, the north's population was roughly two-thirds Protestant, one-third Catholic, which gave political dominance to unionist parties - generally seen as those representing Protestant communities' interests. However, despite the numerical advantage, the political system was rigged to further extend this political advantage. University students and business owners (both groups were overwhelmingly Protestant), were granted a second vote in Stormont (Northern Ireland's parliament) elections. In local elections, only ratepayers (i.e. the heads of households) and their spouses could vote - this excluded many Catholic adults who were living in multi-generational households, which was a symptom of Northern Ireland's housing shortage and inequalities in housing allocation between the two communities. Moreover, this meant that voters who paid rates (NI's council tax) on multiple properties could vote several times, on top of additional votes for business owners and companies, which were more likely to be Protestant. In addition to voting inequalities, districts were gerrymandered in favor of unionist parties. In combination, these factors often proved decisive in swinging elections to give unionist parties victory in Catholic-majority areas.

During the Troubles, the British government introduced a policy of internment in Northern Ireland, whereby authorities had the power to arrest and detain without trial individuals believed to be associated with paramilitary organizations. Between August 9. 1971 and December 5. 1975, almost 2,000 people were interned by the police and British Army. Around 95 percent of these were from a Catholic background, while the first Protestant internees were not arrested until 1973. Internment was introduced in an attempt to weaken the IRA and other nationalist paramilitary groups, however it had the opposite effect. Mismanagement and outdated information saw hundreds of unaffiliated people interned, some of those interned suffered police brutality and were coerced into confessions, and several anti-internment protests turned into some of the bloodiest days of the Troubles. These factors combined to bolster support for Catholic paramilitaries, who gradually transitioned from using defensive to offensive tactics in the early 1970s, and these groups would go on to be responsible for the largest number of combined deaths during the Troubles.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates about the religion or religion brought up in of the usual resident population of Northern Ireland, by broad age bands. The estimates are as at census day, 21 March 2021.

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 religion or their religion brought up in as Catholic or Roman Catholic.

Quality assurance report can be found here

Approximately 44 percent of the more than 3,500 people who were killed as a result of the Troubles in Northern Ireland were killed in Belfast. The predominantly Catholic West Belfast had more deaths during the Troubles than any other division of Northern Ireland. In addition to the deaths in Northern Ireland, over 250 people were killed in Britain, the Republic of Ireland, or elsewhere in Europe.

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

Long-standing tensions between Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland have led to high levels of segregation. This article explores the spaces within which residents of north Belfast move within everyday life and the extent to which these are influenced by segregation. We focus in particular on the role that interconnecting tertiary streets have on patterns of mobility. We adapt Grannis’s (1998) concept to define T-communities from sets of interconnecting tertiary streets within north Belfast. These are combined with more than 6,000 Global Positioning System (GPS) tracks collected from local residents to assess the amount of time spent within different spaces. Spaces are divided into areas of residents’ own community affiliations (in-group), areas not clearly associated with either community (mixed), or areas of opposing community affiliation (out-group). We further differentiate space as being either within a T-community or along a section of main road. Our work extends research on T-communities by expanding their role beyond exploring residential preference, to explore, instead, networks of (dis)connection through which social divisions are expressed via everyday mobility practices. We conclude that residents are significantly less likely to move within mixed and out-group areas and that this is especially true within T-communities. It is also evident that residents are more likely to travel along out-group sections of a main road if they are in a vehicle and that women show no greater likelihood than men to move within out-group space. Evidence from GPS tracks also provides insights into some areas where mixing appears to occur. Key Words: GIS, Northern Ireland, postconflict, segregation, T-communities.

This interview is part of the Women, Risk and Aids Project (1989-90) archive which was created as part of the Reanimating Data Project (2018-20).Original transcript of an interview with Lisa, who had moved from Belfast to Manchester. She has had a religious, Catholic (Protestant) upbringing, and her dad is a minister. Lisa had a good, open relationship with her dad, but struggles to connect with her mum. She enjoys her church community, and though she holds Catholic views she has quite a liberal attitude towards her religion, especially regarding sexuality and marriage, though she can find her religion restrictive at times. She was sexually abused by an uncle when she was younger, which has impacted her views and confidence around her sexuality and she feels some shame around, but she is currently in a very supportive and understanding relationship. Lisa had had sexual intercourse with her current partner and they now use condoms, but had been too embarrassed to purchase them in the early stages of their sexual relationship.She does not want to take the pill, as she is worried about the effect it may have on her moods and health. There was lots of pressure at school to not be a virgin, but Lisa feels she gained respect, especially from her male peers, for upholding her religious values around virginity. Female sexual pleasure was acknowledged among her peers, but not understood in practice - it was not part of their sex education curriculum, and she learnt about pleasure through her current partner, who had been told my his father. She did not have any sex education while in Northern Ireland, but has had what she believes is good sex education at her secondary school in Manchester, covering pregnancy, conception and contraception - her (male) teacher was a bit nervous, but was happy to answer and questions students may have had. AIDS was not covered in her formal sex education, and she learnt about it through friends and public health campaigns in the media. She feels fairly informed about AIDS transmission, and thinks it is important for young people to learn about the risks and would still like more, consistent information. She feels that those who are at highest risks of contracting AIDS are 'People like prostitutes or people like that and people who sleep around a lot and don't use condoms'.

British Army troops were sent to Northern Ireland in 1969 in order to de-escalate tensions between the dominant Protestant and minority Catholic communities during the civil rights movement. Operation Banner, as it came to be known, then lasted until 2007, making it the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The army was initially welcomed by Catholic communities, who felt they would offer protection from what they viewed as a corrupt and sectarian police service, however this quickly changed after a series of interactions between the army and Catholic community turned violent. The army would then become the primary target of republican (predominantly Catholic) paramilitaries throughout the Troubles, and around 750 of those killed in the conflict were from the British Armed Forces (including the UDR). The Ulster Defence Regiment The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was also established in 1970 in an attempt to relieve the police (the RUC) of any militaristic duties, and to replace the Ulster Special Constabulary (also known as the B Specials), who were not trusted by the wider Catholic community. During the Troubles, regular army forces were mostly made up of soldiers from mainland Britain, while the UDR drew from the local population - originally intended to represent local demographics in terms of religious representation, the UDR was almost entirely made up of Protestants within a few years.

These datasets provide datasets on the religion people connect or identify with (their religious affiliation), whether or not they practise or have belief in it, by age and sex using Census 2021 data.

Religious groups in the detailed religion classification

The counts for religious groups identified in the Religion (detailed) in England and Wales dataset are a representation of those who chose to write in their religion. Some people may have chosen to describe a denomination of one of the tick-box responses (for example, Catholic as a denomination of Christian or Orthodox as a denomination of Jewish) through the "Any other religion" write-in response option.

2011 Religion data

In 2011, an error in the processing of census data led to the number of usual residents in the “Religion not stated” category being overestimated by a total of 62,000 for the following three local authorities combined: Camden, Islington, and Tower Hamlets.

In February 2015, the ONS published corrected figures for estimates based on the tick-box classification. However, it could not be corrected for the detailed religion classification because the processing and relationships with other output variables are so complex.

For this reason, only apply comparisons for these three local authorities to the tick-box classification, using the corrected figures set out in the ONS 2011 Census products: Issues and corrections notice.

For this publication, where corrected figures for the tick-box classification from the 2011 Census are available, they have been used. Where they are not (for single year of age by sex), the ONS has used data from the CT0291_2011 commissioned table.