Tuesday, October 23, 2012

69,400 catholics living in Offaly

THE latest series of Census 2011 results shows that 69,400 people in Offaly, representing 90.5% of the county’s population, are Catholic.

Catholicism is the largest single religion in the county and 69,400 is also the largest number of Catholics in the county since records began.

In total 90.5% of the total population was Catholic, an increase of 7.2% since 2006.

This compared with an increase of 4.9% to 84.2% of the population for the State as a whole.

The total of those with no religion, atheists and agnostics increased more than six-fold between 1991 and 2011 to stand at 1,957 or 2.6% of the population of the county in 2011.

There were 2,350 members of the Church of Ireland in County Offaly accounting for 3.1% of the population in the county in April 2011.