he differing age profiles of Northern Eire’s Protestant and Catholic communities are key to understanding the area’s shifting demography, the pinnacle of the census has stated.
Dr David Marshall, director of census and inhabitants statistics on the Northern Eire Statistics and Analysis Company (Nisra), stated the Catholic group was on common youthful than the Protestant one.
“The spiritual demography of Northern Eire partially is pushed by age buildings,” he stated.
“What we discovered within the 2011 census was that the Catholic inhabitants was on common youthful, so there was primarily the next variety of births within the Catholic inhabitants than deaths.
“That acted to extend the scale of the Catholic inhabitants from 2011 to 2021.
“The converse is true for the Protestant inhabitants. On common, it was older 10 years in the past and what we’ve discovered is that there’s extra deaths than births within the Protestant inhabitants, and that acts to carry the Protestant inhabitants down in quantity.
“There are different components as effectively however these are the 2 key issues.”
Dr Marshall stated analysis following the 2011 census additionally discovered proof of an rising quantity of people that would have beforehand described themselves as Protestant selecting to determine as having no faith.
He stated there was a “truthful probability” that development had continued and was additionally a contributory issue to the falling Protestant inhabitants recorded within the newest census.
Dr Marshall stated a surge within the variety of folks holding Irish passports in Northern Eire was influenced by Brexit.
“Clearly, partially that’s pushed by the impression of the UK leaving the European Union in 2016,” he stated.
“Certainly, the Division of Overseas Affairs in Dublin has indicated further demand for passports from folks dwelling right here in Northern Eire.”
Dr Marshall stated the important thing message from Census 2021 was the rising variety it confirmed throughout Northern Eire.
“We revealed at present detailed data on nation of beginning, ethnicity, languages, nationality – all of these statistics level to a extra numerous Northern Eire than ever earlier than,” he stated.
“One focal point can be the inhabitants of Belfast has elevated from the 2001 census to the 2021 census – all of that enhance over 20 years is right down to people who find themselves within the ethnic minority group.
“The white inhabitants of Belfast hasn’t modified dramatically during the last 20 years. It’s the ethnic minority teams.”
Supply hyperlink
