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Data released from last year’s National Census has revealed a large drop in the number of people self-identifying as Catholic.Â
According to figures released by the CSO 3,515, 861 respondents said they were Catholic compared to ​​3,831,187 for the overall population recorded in the last census conducted in 2011.
On the face of it this represents a drop of 315,326 over an 11 year period.Â
The total figure of 3,515, 861 reflects that 69% of the population still identify as Catholic while the number of those who identified as ‘no religion’ was 736,210 or 14%, an increase of 284,269 compared to the 2016 figure.
The number of those identifying as Muslim increased by 19,898 while practitioners of Orthodox Christianity increased by 39,388 since 2016. Â
The average national age was 38.8 years with an overall population of 5,149,139 representing growth of 8% in which the population exceeded the five million threshold for the first time in 171 years.
The number of those who reported as non Irish citizens was 631,785 or 12% while the number of those who reported having dual citizenship was 150,597 or 3%.Â
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