Ireland’s 2022 census figures are out and show a nation undergoing a huge amount of change very quickly. Ireland is, as far we know, the only country on the planet with a smaller population in 2023 than it had in 1800 — a famine and a culture of emigration across the former British Empire had their say. But, for the first time in 171 years, Ireland’s population is over 5 million. This is an astonishing 8 percent increase since just 2016, which makes Ireland’s housing crisis more understandable.
“The proportion of the population who identified Roman Catholic as their religion fell from 79 per cent in 2016 to 69 per cent in 2022,” the Irish Times reports.
The share of Catholics in Ireland is at a record low, according to census data released today.
1961 95%
1971 94%
1981 93%
1991 92%
2002 88%
2006 87%
2011 84%
2016 78%
2022 69%https://t.co/yb9RT962uV— Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) May 30, 2023
While everyone knows that Ireland is rapidly shifting towards a new consensus in which the Catholic Church is held in especially low regard, it is still shocking that there’s been a one in ten drop-off when there are still ethnic, historical, and even institutional reasons to continue to identify as Catholic. In Ireland, most families still send their children to Catholic schools, many of which still have a soft requirement for sacramental formation in the church. A slight change to the census wording may be driving the numbers to drop faster, but they reflect a reality people can feel in the air.