Summary
This is a list of districts in Northern Ireland by religion or religion brought up in.
In the 2001 decennial census, the Census Office for Northern Ireland (CONI) asked a new question to attempt to achieve a more accurate depiction of the balance of the mainly unionist Protestant and mainly nationalist Catholic communities across Northern Ireland.
As well as asking the traditional question of "Religion?" – to which over 13% of respondents gave no answer – it also asked "Religion brought up in?" to capture those who no longer identify with a religion. The combination of the two questions gave a community background by religion for over 97% of the population. In the 2011 census the same process could only assign a religion to 94% of the population and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency ceased to call the measure "community background" and instead called it "religion or religion brought up in".
These figures are presented here as an approximation of the community balance, without implying any particular significance to the absolute figures. Not all Protestants are unionists, and not all Catholics are nationalist. For information on recent communal conflicts in Northern Ireland, see the Troubles. The census reports do not distinguish between Protestant and other non-Catholic Christian faiths. The number of Orthodox Christians in Northern Ireland is estimated at about 3000 followers.[1]
These figures based on the 2021 census at district level mask wide variations on smaller scales.[2] In the Belfast City Council and Derry and Strabane District Council areas, the figures at ward level vary from 99% Protestant to 92% Catholic.
Following the reform of local government in Northern Ireland the twenty-six districts created in 1973 were replaced with eleven "super districts". The first election using these districts took place on 22 May 2014, electing councillors who sat in shadow form until 1 April 2015. The breakdown of religion or religion brought up in within these new boundaries at the time of the 2021 census was as follows.[3]
| District | Catholic | Protestant and other Christian |
Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 31.4% | 54.7% | 12.4% |
| Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon | 43.8% | 46.7% | 8.2% |
| Belfast | 48.7% | 36.4% | 11.6% |
| Causeway Coast and Glens | 40.1% | 51.1% | 7.9% |
| Derry and Strabane | 72.4% | 23.1% | 3.5% |
| Fermanagh and Omagh | 64.3% | 30.7% | 4.1% |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 27.2% | 58.3% | 12.8% |
| Mid and East Antrim | 19.7% | 67.3% | 12.1% |
| Mid Ulster | 64.7% | 30.2% | 4.4% |
| Newry, Mourne and Down | 72.1% | 22.0% | 5.2% |
| Ards and North Down | 13.6% | 67.9% | 17.1% |
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Patsy McGarry, Orthodox Christians of all shades now have a significant presence in Ireland. The Irish Times, May 2008.
- ^ [1] 2011 Census Religion or Religion Brought Up In Published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, January 2013
- ^ "Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Information Service". Retrieved 25 July 2014.
External links edit
- Northern Ireland Census
- NI2001CENSUS
- [2]