Northern Ireland has more Catholics than Protestants for first time - census

Northern Ireland has more Catholics than Protestants for the first time, census results showed on Thursday, a historic shift that some see as likely to help drive support for the region to split from Britain and join a united Ireland.

45.7% of respondents identified as Catholic or were brought up Catholic, compared with 43.5% identifying as Protestants, data from the 2021 census showed. A decade ago the previous census showed Protestants outnumbered Catholics by 48% to 45%, after falling below the 50% mark for the first time.

The shift comes a century after the Northern Ireland state was established with the aim of maintaining a pro-British, Protestant majority as a counterweight to the newly independent, predominantly Catholic, Irish state to the south.

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