Catholics outnumber Protestants in N. Ireland for first time: census

BELFAST – The number of Catholics living in UK-ruled Northern Ireland exceeds the total of Protestants and other Christian denominations for the first time, the results of a 2021 census released today showed.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency said 42.31% of the population identified as Catholic, while 37.36% said they were Protestant or otherwise Christian.

The results follow longstanding demographic trends in Northern Ireland, which was first created in 1921 to assure the dominance of the region’s pro-UK, largely Protestant majority.

The landmark shift is likely to intensify calls for a referendum on reuniting Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, as permitted under a 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of sectarian violence.

The data showed 31.86% of people living in the region identified as only British, with 29.13% identifying as only Irish. A further 19.78% identified only as Northern Irish.

In 2011, the British-only figure had stood at 40%.

The data showed 46.64% of the population only hold UK passports, 26.51% only hold Irish passports, and 5.49% hold both passports – a number that has risen since the UK’s Brexit referendum in 2016. – AFP, September 22, 2022