Census: Number of Catholics falls while 1,800 identify as Jedi Knights
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There has been a significant decrease in the number of people identifying as Roman Catholic, according to the 2022 Census, falling from 79% of the population in 2016 to 69%.
In real terms, this was a fall of 180,783 people, to 3.51 million.
In 1991, over 91% of the population was Roman Catholic. This fell to 88.4% in 2002 while the latest figure of 69% demonstrates the full extent of the decline in the 20 years since.
The highest figure recorded was at the 1961 Census when 94.9% of the population was Roman Catholic.
The Census 2022 form differed slightly from the previous form in 2016, in that the question changed to “What is your religion, if any?” from “What is your religion?”.
Furthermore, the first option listed in 2016 was “Roman Catholic” while the first option listed in 2022 was “No Religion”.
The CSO said it tested this question in a pilot survey five years ago, and it found the results quite similar to the proportion who determined themselves to be Roman Catholic in 2016.
There was an increase in the proportion of the population saying they had no religion, up to 736,210 people in 2022, or 14% of the public.
The Church of Ireland was the second largest religion at 124,749 people, with other categories including Orthodox (100,000) and Islam (81,000).
The number of Hindus in Ireland, meanwhile, more than doubled to 33,043 in 2022.
As participants could write a religion of their own, it meant that dozens of religions were represented in the Census.
In all, 1,800 people identified as Jedi Knights — popularised by the Star Wars films — down from 2,050 in 2016. Of these, 1,512 were male, and 288 female.
Turning to marital status, the proportion of people over the age of 15 who were single increased from 41% in 2016 to 43% in 2022. Married people now make up 46% of the population over 15, compared to 48% previously.
The percentage of those separated or divorced remained stable at 6%.
Galway and Dublin cities had the highest proportion of single people, both at almost 55%. In Cork City, meanwhile, this figuure was 48.5%.