NI Census 2021: More people from a Catholic background than Protestant for first time
In terms of national identity, 31.9% said they were British-only, 29.1% said Irish-only and 19.8% said Northern Irish-only.
Last updated 22nd Sep 2022
For the first time in history, the latest census figures show that are more people from a Catholic background here than Protestant.
The Census 2021 figures, published on Thursday, show that 45.7% of the population said they were either Catholic or brought up as a Catholic.
The figures for Protestants (and other Christian faiths) was 43.5% while 1.5% were from other non-Christian religions.
The 2011 Census recorded 48% of the population as being either Protestant or brought up Protestant, down five percentage points on 2001. The Catholic population stood at 45% in the last census, up one percentage point on 2001.
The 2021 Census showed 9.3% of the population as belonging to no religion - this figure is up from 5.6% in 2011.
The Northern Ireland usually resident population increased by 5.1 per cent (92,300) from 2011 to 2021. The Census 2021 population is recorded at 1,903,175 people, up from 1,810,863 people in 2011.
814,600 people (42.8 per cent) living here identified solely or along with other national identities as ‘British’.
634,600 people (33.3 per cent) living here identified solely or along with other national identities as ‘Irish’.
598,800 people (31.5 per cent) living here identified solely or along with other national identities as ‘Northern Irish’.
Full breakdown of stats here.