The Central Statistics Office has released more figures from the 2011 census that has highlighted the changing makeup of religion in Ireland.
* The number of agnostics or atheists has increased dramatically and now represents 5.9% of the population
* Catholics represent 84.2% of the population, the lowest percentage ever recorded
* Muslims account for 1.1%
* Non-Christian religions in Ireland account for 1.9%
Other highlight from the 2011 census include:
* There were 42,854 more females than males in the State in April 2011
* Immigration by Irish nationals was 19,593 in the year to April 2011
* Immigration by foreign nationals in the year to April 2011 was 33,674. The largest groups came from Poland, UK, France, Lithuania, Spain and the USA
* Total housing stock grew to almost 2 million homes, of these almost 290,000 were vacant on census night giving a vacancy rate of 14.5%
* Over half a million (514,068) Irish residents spoke a foreign language. Polish was by far the most common, followed by French, Lithuanian and German
About the author
Michael Green is Manager of The Information about Ireland Site
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Still mostly a Catholic country though!
I am not suprised that the number of people in Ireland calling themselves Catholic has dropped to its lowest level ever. I predict this figure will fall further as the Catholic Church is a false Christian church whose teachings contradict the Bible. If you want to know what the Bible really says on a whole lot of issues, visit this website: https://www.biblelight.org/bs1.htm and then click on the 20 heading on the menu on the left hand side.