THE HUGE diversity of religious and spiritual beliefs among Louth's growing population was captured in Census 2011.
Although the headline figures revealed that 106,845 of Louth's 122,897 population referred to themselves as Catholic, an increase of 7.2 per cent on the previous census, a breakdown for the county showed many changes to our belief systems.
A full picture of how Louth people completed their census forms won't be available until October 2012, but there are still some interesting insights to be gained from the initial results.
The most dramatic change was a 62 per cent increase in the number of people who declare themselves as having ' no religion'.
Over 5,400 people in Louth are now either atheist or not aligned to any particular faith.
The five year period since the last census has seen 2,076 added to this demographic.
The Presbyterian church in Louth have added an additional 570 new members, an increase of over 30 per cent, with Church of Ireland followers rising by 24 per cent to 2,179.
The smallest faith group in Louth are Jewish people, with just 19 believers.
Almost 50 per cent indicated they belonged to ' other stated religions' which is expected to include the growing number of evangelical christian followers, and those aligned to the Islamic faith.
The CSO confirmed that a full county breakdown of these will be included in the October results.