Atheism on the rise in County Louth

THE number of people practicing Catholicism in the county has fallen although Catholicism remains the predominant religion in County Louth, according to the latest figures from the 2016 Census.

The latest report from the Central Statistics Office, based on the figures from last year’s census, shows that 81.6% (105,186) of Louth’s population in April 2016 consider themselves Catholic. This was down from 106,845 persons five years previously. Nationally, the total number of Catholics has also fallen since 2011, with Catholics comprising 78.3% of the population in April 2016, down from 84.2% in 2011, while the number of people with no religion (including atheists and agnostics) increased by 73.6% to stand at 481,388 in 2016.

The average age of Catholics in county Louth was 37.3 years, compared with the overall average age of 36.4 years. As with the State overall, the next largest group was those with no religion. In 2011, the 5,414 people with no religion comprised 4.4% of the county’s population. By 2016, this had increased to 9,747 people comprising 7.6% of the county’s population. Their average age was 33.1 years, making them 3.3 years younger on average than the county’s population overall. The 2,079 Church of Ireland members in the county made up 1.6% of its total population. On average, Church of Ireland members in Louth were 1.8 years older (38.2 years) than the overall population in the county. Muslims (1,825) and Orthodox (1,471) completed the top five.