Now Ulster Catholics outnumber Protestants

ROMAN Catholics now outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland, census figures revealed yesterday.

Some 45.7 per cent of the province’s 1.9million population is either Catholic or was brought up in the faith, against 43.5 per cent who are Protestant.

It is the first time since the Partition of Ireland a century ago that Protestants have not been in the majority, and has prompted renewed calls from nationalists for a poll on reunification.

Sinn Fein MP John Finucane said: ‘There is no doubt change is under way and irreversible. How that change is shaped moving forward

‘Plan for a referendum’

requires maturity to take the challenges which face our society.’

He added: ‘The Irish government should establish a citizens’ assembly to plan for the possibility of a unity referendum.’

And SDLP leader Colum Eastwood hailed it as a ‘seminal moment in the history of modern Ireland’.

He added: ‘ The census figures reveal that, by any measure, the constitution of the North has been transformed utterly 100 years on from Partition.’

However unionists insist that the ‘religious head count’ does not necessarily mean increased support for nationalist parties.

DUP MP Gregory Campbell admitted: ‘It is undoubtedly the case that there has been a change in the demographic make-up of Northern Ireland over the last

50 years.’ But he went on: ‘ There are no majorities. There is a Protestant minority, a Roman Catholic minority and a minority of people who don’t describe themselves as coming from either of these two backgrounds.’

The figures from the 2021 census, published yesterday by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency contrast with the census of 2001. In that period, the proportion of Protestants has fallen sharply from 53.1 per cent to 43.5 while Catholics have risen marginally from 43.8 per cent to 45.7.