Tributes to the Queen in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which now has more Catholics than Protestants. -AP
Northern Ireland has more Catholics than Protestants for the first time, census results show, a historic shift that some see as likely to help drive support for the region to split from Britain and join a united Ireland.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
In all, 45.7 per cent of respondents identified as Catholic or were brought up Catholic, compared with 43.5 per cent identifying as Protestants, data from the 2021 census showed.
A decade ago the previous census showed Protestants outnumbered Catholics by 48 per cent to 45 per cent, after falling below the 50 per cent 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.Â
