The real story of the census is the decline of religion in Northern Ireland

Following the publication of the census results there has been a lot of distortion of what they actually tell us.

We have had no end of attempts to read political conclusions into the fact that there are now more people describing themselves as Roman Catholics than Protestants with several commentators and politicians even inaccurately claiming that Northern Ireland has a Roman Catholic majority when in fact the census shows that they make up 45.7% of the population. Never have more been said about a rise of a fraction of 1% in 10 years.

The real story in the census figures is the decline of religion in NI. All the major Protestant denominations saw their numbers fall from the comparative figures 10 years ago — with Presbyterians losing the least (they reduced by 8.4%) and number of Methodists declining by over 17%. One cannot explain this fall by a drift towards other Protestant denominations. The number of Free Presbyterians, for example, declined by 16.3% over the same period. Voices within the churches have been quick to point out that 8 out of 10 people in NI still identity with some brand of Christendom. I suspect the truth is masked by a greater willingness of people from a Roman Catholic background to identity with the label Roman Catholic while people from a traditionally Protestant background are much more likely to say that they are non-religious. Anyone who looks at the map published along with the census data showing the high concentration of those saying they no religion in the east of the Province will be hard pressed to escape a similar conclusion.

It has received little focus as yet but in reality, the census results present much more uncomfortable reading for the churches than they do for politicians of any stripe.

Samuel Morrison, Co Down