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 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

The island of Ireland is split into 32 different counties, and from 1800 until 1921 the whole island was a part of the United Kingdome of Great Britain and Ireland (although Britain had been a controlling presence on the island for considerably longer than this). In 1921 the island was split into two separate states, where the six counties with the highest population of Protestants formed part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the other 26 counties became the Independent Republic of Ireland. From 1821 until 1841, the population of these 26 counties was growing steadily, until the Great Famine from 1845 to 1849 swept across the island, particularly devastating the west and south.

The famine was caused by a Europe-wide potato blight that contributed to mass starvation and death throughout the continent, although it's impact on Ireland was much harsher than anywhere else. The potato blight affected Ireland so severely as the majority of potatoes in Ireland were of a single variety which allowed the disease to spread much faster than in other countries. People in the west and south of Ireland were particularly dependent on potatoes, and these areas were affected more heavily than the north and west, where flax and cereals were the staple. As the potato blight spread, the population became increasingly reliant on dairy and grain products, however a lot of these resources were relocated by the British military to combat food shortages in Britain. Due to disproportional dependency on potatoes, and mismanagement by the British government, over one million people died and a further one million emigrated. The Great Famine lasted from just 1845 to 1849, but it's legacy caused almost a century of population decline, and to this day, the population of Ireland has never exceeded it's pre-famine levels.

The population decline continued well into the twentieth century, during which time the Republic of Ireland achieved independence from the British Empire. After centuries of fighting and rebellion against British rule, Irish nationalists finally gained some independence from Britain in 1921, establishing an Irish Republic in the 26 counties. There was a lot of conflict in Ireland in the early 1900s, through the War of Independence and Irish Civil War, however the population of the Republic began growing again from the 1960s onwards as the quality of life improved and the emigration rate declined. The population was at it's lowest from 1926 to 1971, where it remained at just under three million, but in the following fifty years the population has grown by over two million people.

Between 1821 and 1921, the entire island of Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, after both islands were united by the Act of Union in 1800. This graph shows only the population of the six counties of Ireland that would go on to become Northern Ireland. The population was just under 1.4 million in 1821 and grew to 1.7 million in the next twenty years.

Between 1845 and 1849 the Great Famine devastated the overall population of Ireland, causing the deaths of approximately one million people, and causing a further million to emigrate. Although the famine affected the population of the west and south of Ireland much more severely than the north, the population of the six counties still fell by over 200,000 people between 1841 and 1851. The population then continued to fall, reaching it's lowest point in the 1890s where it was 1.2 million. The Northern Irish population then grows slowly until the mid to late 1900s, during which time the state of Northern Ireland was founded in 1921. The population the reaches over 1.54 million in the 1960s, before it falls again in the 1970s. This drop in population coincides with the outbreak and the most violent decade of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which was a conflict that dominated Northern Irish daily life for decades. However, from 1981 onwards the population grows by 70,000 to 12,000 every ten years, surpassing it's pre-famine level in the 1990s.

Archive of 2001 census aggregate data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as made available originally on the Casweb platform.

Graph and download economic data for Value of Exports to Ireland from North Carolina (NCIRLA052SCEN) from 1992 to 2017 about Ireland, exports, and NC.

Graph and download economic data for Number of Identified Exporters to Ireland from North Dakota (NDIRLA475SCEN) from 1992 to 2017 about Ireland, ND, exports, and business.

In 2023, there were 130,936 people aged between 55 and 59 in Northern Ireland, which was the most of any age group in this year.

National and subnational mid-year population estimates for the UK and its constituent countries by administrative area, age and sex (including components of population change, median age and population density).

In 2022, Belfast was the local district that had the highest number of inhabitants in Northern Ireland, with an estimated population of 348,000, followed by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon which had approximately 220,000 people living there in this year.

This file contains the National Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL) for the United Kingdom as at August 2022 in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) and ASCII text (TXT) formats. To download the zip file click the Download button. The NSPL relates both current and terminated postcodes to a range of current statutory geographies via ‘best-fit’ allocation from the 2021 Census Output Areas (national parks and Workplace Zones are exempt from ‘best-fit’ and use ‘exact-fit’ allocations) for England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland has the 2011 Census Output AreasIt supports the production of area based statistics from postcoded data. The NSPL is produced by ONS Geography, who provide geographic support to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and geographic services used by other organisations. The NSPL is issued quarterly. (File size - 184 MB).

The population of the United Kingdom in 2023 was estimated to be approximately 68.3 million in 2023, with almost 9.48 million people living in South East England. London had the next highest population, at over 8.9 million people, followed by the North West England at 7.6 million. With the UK's population generally concentrated in England, most English regions have larger populations than the constituent countries of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which had populations of 5.5 million, 3.16 million, and 1.92 million respectively. English counties and cities The United Kingdom is a patchwork of various regional units, within England the largest of these are the regions shown here, which show how London, along with the rest of South East England had around 18 million people living there in this year. The next significant regional units in England are the 47 metropolitan and ceremonial counties. After London, the metropolitan counties of the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire were the biggest of these counties, due to covering the large urban areas of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds respectively. Regional divisions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland The smaller countries that comprise the United Kingdom each have different local subdivisions. Within Scotland these are called council areas whereas in Wales the main regional units are called unitary authorities. Scotland's largest Council Area by population is that of Glasgow City at over 622,000, while in Wales, it was the Cardiff Unitary Authority at around 372,000. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, has eleven local government districts, the largest of which is Belfast with a population of around 348,000.

In the past four centuries, the population of the United States has grown from a recorded 350 people around the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1610, to an estimated 331 million people in 2020. The pre-colonization populations of the indigenous peoples of the Americas have proven difficult for historians to estimate, as their numbers decreased rapidly following the introduction of European diseases (namely smallpox, plague and influenza). Native Americans were also omitted from most censuses conducted before the twentieth century, therefore the actual population of what we now know as the United States would have been much higher than the official census data from before 1800, but it is unclear by how much. Population growth in the colonies throughout the eighteenth century has primarily been attributed to migration from the British Isles and the Transatlantic slave trade; however it is also difficult to assert the ethnic-makeup of the population in these years as accurate migration records were not kept until after the 1820s, at which point the importation of slaves had also been illegalized. Nineteenth century In the year 1800, it is estimated that the population across the present-day United States was around six million people, with the population in the 16 admitted states numbering at 5.3 million. Migration to the United States began to happen on a large scale in the mid-nineteenth century, with the first major waves coming from Ireland, Britain and Germany. In some aspects, this wave of mass migration balanced out the demographic impacts of the American Civil War, which was the deadliest war in U.S. history with approximately 620 thousand fatalities between 1861 and 1865. The civil war also resulted in the emancipation of around four million slaves across the south; many of whose ancestors would take part in the Great Northern Migration in the early 1900s, which saw around six million black Americans migrate away from the south in one of the largest demographic shifts in U.S. history. By the end of the nineteenth century, improvements in transport technology and increasing economic opportunities saw migration to the United States increase further, particularly from southern and Eastern Europe, and in the first decade of the 1900s the number of migrants to the U.S. exceeded one million people in some years. Twentieth and twenty-first century The U.S. population has grown steadily throughout the past 120 years, reaching one hundred million in the 1910s, two hundred million in the 1960s, and three hundred million in 2007. In the past century, the U.S. established itself as a global superpower, with the world's largest economy (by nominal GDP) and most powerful military. Involvement in foreign wars has resulted in over 620,000 further U.S. fatalities since the Civil War, and migration fell drastically during the World Wars and Great Depression; however the population continuously grew in these years as the total fertility rate remained above two births per woman, and life expectancy increased (except during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918).

Since the Second World War, Latin America has replaced Europe as the most common point of origin for migrants, with Hispanic populations growing rapidly across the south and border states. Because of this, the proportion of non-Hispanic whites, which has been the most dominant ethnicity in the U.S. since records began, has dropped more rapidly in recent decades. Ethnic minorities also have a much higher birth rate than non-Hispanic whites, further contributing to this decline, and the share of non-Hispanic whites is expected to fall below fifty percent of the U.S. population by the mid-2000s. In 2020, the United States has the third-largest population in the world (after China and India), and the population is expected to reach four hundred million in the 2050s.

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Administrative Counties national boundary data (generalised to 50m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 4.2, family units with children. Attributes include family units by number of children and age of children (e.g. families with 1 child - all children aged under 15, families with 3 children - all children aged both under 15 and over 15 ). Census 2016 theme 4 represents Families. 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. In census reports the country is divided into 29 counties/administrative counties and the five Cities which represent the local authority areas. Outside Dublin there are 26 administrative counties (North Tipperary and South Tipperary each ranks as a separate county for administrative purposes) and four Cities, i.e. Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. In Dublin the four local authority areas are identified separately, i.e. Dublin City and the three administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin.

At the end of the Revolutionary Period in United States history, the majority of white settlers in the United States of America had English heritage. The Thirteen Colonies, which claimed independence in 1776, was part of the British Empire until this point - English settlers and their descendants made up over 60 percent of the population by 1790. The English were the ethnic majority (among whites) in all states except Pennsylvania, which had a similarly-sized German population, while New York had a sizeable Dutch population as it was a former Dutch colony. The second-largest group was the Irish, where those from both the island's north and south made up a combined 10 percent of the population, followed by the Scottish and Germans at over eight percent each. Outside of the United States, the French and Spanish territories that would later be incorporated into the Union were majority French and Spanish - despite their large size they were relatively sparsely populated. The composition of the U.S. population would change drastically throughout the 19th century due largely to waves of migration from Europe.

This data is experimental, see the ‘Access Constraints or User Limitations’ section for more details. This dataset has been generalised to 10 metre resolution where it is still but the space needed for downloads will be improved.A set of UK wide estimated travel area geometries (isochrones), from Output Area (across England, Scotland, and Wales) and Small Area (across Northern Ireland) population-weighted centroids. The modes used in the isochrone calculations are limited to public transport and walking. Generated using Open Trip Planner routing software in combination with Open Street Maps and open public transport schedule data (UK and Ireland).The geometries provide an estimate of reachable areas by public transport and on foot between 7:15am and 9:15am for a range of maximum travel durations (15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes). For England, Scotland and Wales, these estimates were generated using public transport schedule data for Tuesday 15th November 2022. For Northern Ireland, the date used is Tuesday 6th December 2022.The data is made available as a set of ESRI shape files, in .zip format. This corresponds to a total of 18 files; one for Northern Ireland, one for Wales, twelve for England (one per English region, where London, South East and North West have been split into two files each) and four for Scotland (one per NUTS2 region, where the ‘North-East’ and ‘Highlands and Islands’ have been combined into one shape file, and South West Scotland has been split into two files).The shape files contain the following attributes. For further details, see the ‘Access Constraints or User Limitations’ section:AttributeDescriptionOA21CD or SA2011 or OA11CDEngland and Wales: The 2021 Output Area code.Northern Ireland: The 2011 Small Area code.Scotland: The 2011 Output Area code.centre_latThe population-weighted centroid latitude.centre_lonThe population-weighted centroid longitude.node_latThe latitude of the nearest Open Street Map “highway” node to the population-weighted centroid.node_lonThe longitude of the nearest Open Street Map “highway” node to the population-weighted centroid.node_distThe distance, in meters, between the population-weighted centroid and the nearest Open Street Map “highway” node.stop_latThe latitude of the nearest public transport stop to the population-weighted centroid.stop_lonThe longitude of the nearest public transport stop to the population-weighted centroid.stop_distThe distance, in metres, between the population-weighted centroid and the nearest public transport stop.centre_inBinary value (0 or 1), where 1 signifies the population-weighted centroid lies within the Output Area/Small Area boundary. 0 indicates the population-weighted centroid lies outside the boundary.node_inBinary value (0 or 1), where 1 signifies the nearest Open Street Map “highway” node lies within the Output Area/Small Area boundary. 0 indicates the nearest Open Street Map node lies outside the boundary.stop_inBinary value (0 or 1), where 1 signifies the nearest public transport stop lies within the Output Area/Small Area boundary. 0 indicates the nearest transport stop lies outside the boundary.iso_cutoffThe maximum travel time, in seconds, to construct the reachable area/isochrone. Values are either 900, 1800, 2700, or 3600 which correspond to 15, 30, 45, and 60 minute limits respectively.iso_dateThe date for which the isochrones were estimated, in YYYY-MM-DD format.iso_typeThe start point from which the estimated isochrone was calculated. Valid values are:from_centroid: calculated using population weighted centroid.from_node: calculated using the nearest Open Street Map “highway” node.from_stop: calculated using the nearest public transport stop.no_trip_found: no isochrone was calculated.geometryThe isochrone geometry.iso_hectarThe area of the isochrone, in hectares.Access constraints or user limitations.These data are experimental and will potentially have a wider degree of uncertainty. They remain subject to testing of quality, volatility, and ability to meet user needs. The methodologies used to generate them are still subject to modification and further evaluation.These experimental data have been published with specific caveats outlined in this section. The data are shared with the analytical community with the purpose of benefitting from the community's scrutiny and in improving the quality and demand of potential future releases. There may be potential modification following user feedback on both its quality and suitability.For England and Wales, where possible, the latest census 2021 Output Area population weighted centroids were used as the starting point from which isochrones were calculated.For Northern Ireland, 2011 Small Area population weighted centroids were used as the starting point from which isochrones were calculated. Small Areas and Output Areas contain a similar number of households within their boundaries. 2011 data was used because this was the most up-to-date data available at the time of generating this dataset. Population weighted centroids for Northern Ireland were calculated internally but may be subject to change - in the future we aim to update these data to be consistent with Census 2021 across the UK.For Scotland, 2011 Output Area population-weighted centroids were used as the starting point from which isochrones were calculated. 2011 data was used because this was the most up-to-date data available at the time of work.The data for England, Scotland and Wales are released with the projection EPSG:27700 (British National Grid).The data for Northern Ireland are released with the projection EPSG:29902 (Irish Grid).The modes used in the isochrone calculations are limited to public transport and walking. Other modes were not considered when generating this data.A maximum value of 1.5 kilometres walking distance was used when generating isochrones. This approximately represents typical walking distances during a commute (based on Department for Transport/Labour Force Survey data and Travel Survey for Northern Ireland technical reports).When generating Northern Ireland data, public transport schedule data for both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland were used.Isochrone geometries and calculated areas are subject to public transport schedule data accuracy, Open Trip Planner routing methods and Open Street Map accuracy. The location of the population-weighted centroid can also influence the validity of the isochrones, when this falls on land which is not possible or is difficult to traverse (e.g., private land and very remote locations).The Northern Ireland public transport data were collated from several files, and as such required additional pre-processing. Location data are missing for two bus stops. Some services run by local public transport providers may also be missing. However, the missing data should have limited impact on the isochrone output. Due to the availability of Northern Ireland public transport data, the isochrones for Northern Ireland were calculated on a comparable but slight later date of 6th December 2022. Any potential future releases are likely to contained aligned dates between all four regions of the UK.In cases where isochrones are not calculable from the population-weighted centroid, or when the calculated isochrones are unrealistically small, the nearest Open Street Map ‘highway’ node is used as an alternative starting point. If this then fails to yield a result, the nearest public transport stop is used as the isochrone origin. If this also fails to yield a result, the geometry will be ‘None’ and the ‘iso_hectar’ will be set to zero. The following information shows a further breakdown of the isochrone types for the UK as a whole:from_centroid: 99.8844%from_node: 0.0332%from_stop: 0.0734%no_trip_found: 0.0090%The term ‘unrealistically small’ in the point above refers to outlier isochrones with a significantly smaller area when compared with both their neighbouring Output/Small Areas and the entire regional distribution. These reflect a very small fraction of circumstances whereby the isochrone extent was impacted by the centroid location and/or how Open Trip Planner handled them (e.g. remote location, private roads and/or no means of traversing the land). Analysis showed these outliers were consistently below 100 hectares for 60-minute isochrones. Therefore, In these cases, the isochrone point of origin was adjusted to the nearest node or stop, as outlined above.During the quality assurance checks, the extent of the isochrones was observed to be in good agreement with other routing software and within the limitations stated within this section. Additionally, the use of nearest node, nearest stop, and correction of ‘unrealistically small areas’ was implemented in a small fraction of cases only. This culminates in no data being available for 8 out of 239,768 Output/Small Areas.Data is only available in ESRI shape file format (.zip) at this release.https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

As of 2023, the population density in London was by far the highest number of people per square km in the UK, at 5,690. Of the other regions and countries which constitute the United Kingdom, North West England was the next most densely populated area at 533 people per square kilometer. Scotland, by contrast, is the most sparsely populated country or region in the United Kingdom, with only 70 people per square kilometer. UK population over 67 million According to the official mid-year population estimate, the population of the United Kingdom was just almost 67.6 million in 2022. Most of the population lived in England, where an estimated 57.1 million people resided, followed by Scotland at 5.44 million, Wales at 3.13 million and finally Northern Ireland at just over 1.9 million. Within England, the South East was the region with the highest population at almost 9.38 million, followed by the London region at around 8.8 million. In terms of urban areas, Greater London is the largest city in the United Kingdom, followed by Greater Manchester and Birmingham in the North West and West Midlands regions of England. London calling London's huge size in relation to other UK cities is also reflected by its economic performance. In 2021, London's GDP was approximately 494 billion British pounds, almost a quarter of UK GDP overall. In terms of GDP per capita, Londoners had a GDP per head of 56,431 pounds, compared with an average of 33,224 for the country as a whole. Productivity, expressed as by output per hour worked, was also far higher in London than the rest of the country. In 2021, London was around 33.2 percent more productive than the rest of the country, with South East England the only other region where productivity was higher than the national average.

Population by sex and social class by Local Authorities. (Census 2022 Theme 9 Table 1 )Census 2022 table 9.1 is population aged 15+ by sex and social class. Attributes include population breakdown by social class and sex. Census 2022 theme 9 is Social Class and Socio-Economic Group. The methodology has changed for SOC and SEG so comparisons cannot be made with 2016 data. See Background Notes - CSO - Central Statistics Officehttps://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpp7/census2022profile7-employmentoccupationsandcommuting/backgroundnotes/ The country is divided into 31 administrative counties/cities. Outside Dublin, there are 23 administrative counties and four cities: Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. There are four local authority areas in Dublin: Dublin City and the three administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 Section 9 provided for the amalgamation of the city and county councils in Limerick, Waterford, and North Tipperary and South Tipperary County Councils.Coordinate reference system: Irish Transverse Mercator (EPSG 2157). These boundaries are based on 20m generalised boundaries sourced from Tailte Éireann Open Data Portal. This dataset is provided by Tailte Éireann, Administrative Counties 2019

Population aged 0 - 19 by sex and year of age, persons aged 20 years and over by sex and age group by Local Authorities. (Census 2022 Theme 1 Table 1 )Census 2022 table 1.1 is the total population of Ireland by sex and age. Details include population by sex and and age group. Census 2022 theme 1 is population by Sex, Age and Marital status. The country is divided into 31 administrative counties/cities. Outside Dublin, there are 23 administrative counties and four cities: Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. There are four local authority areas in Dublin: Dublin City and the three administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 Section 9 provided for the amalgamation of the city and county councils in Limerick, Waterford, and North Tipperary and South Tipperary County Councils.Coordinate reference system: Irish Transverse Mercator (EPSG 2157). These boundaries are based on 20m generalised boundaries sourced from Tailte Éireann Open Data Portal. This dataset is provided by Tailte Éireann, Administrative Counties 2019