CSO press release regarding religious demographics

Delirium

Press release out today about the religious breakdown from last years census. Thought folks here might be interested in the results. Full press release via link below.

Of the 3.8 million Catholics in Ireland in 2011, 92 per cent were Irish while the remaining 8 per cent belonged to a range of nationalities. Among the non-Irish, Poles were the biggest group with 110,410 persons, followed by the UK with 49,761 and between them they accounted for over half of all non-Irish Catholics.
There were 64,798 divorced Catholics in Ireland in April 2011 of which 27,468 were males and 37,330 were females.

The total of those with no religion, atheists and agnostics increased more than four-fold between 1991 and 2011 to stand at 277,237 in 2011. This group included 14,769 primary school aged children and 14,478 of secondary school age. There were 4,690 children aged under one year who had no religion.

CSO press release

EDIT: PDF of the complete report

Obliq

Interesting to note that we atheists have no disparity like this: "A FEATURE of recent surveys on Irish Catholicism has been the findings of a steady decline in weekly Mass attendance. The Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll, published today, shows 34 per cent of Catholics in the Republic attend Mass at least once a week."
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0605/1224317296134.html

Might be more accurate to say 34% of the 3.8 million are practising catholics.

Newaglish

It's actually outrageous that they count 297,944 people between the ages of 0 and 4 as Roman Catholic. THEY CAN'T EVEN READ!

Obliq

Newaglish wrote: »

It's actually outrageous that they count 297,944 people between the ages of 0 and 4 as Roman Catholic. THEY CAN'T EVEN READ!

:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Well in fairness, I didn't ever put it to my kids when they were 0 -4 either....just signed 'em up as no religion!

Newaglish

Obliq wrote: »

:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Well in fairness, I didn't ever put it to my kids when they were 0 -4 either....just signed 'em up as no religion!

That's kind of my point - no baby is going to have a religion, in the same way I wouldn't call them an atheist. (although technically they are I suppose)

Newaglish

The gender differences are kind of interesting. Females are 85.4% Roman Catholic and 4.9% No Religion, while Males are 82.9% Roman Catholic and 6.9% No Religion. I wonder where the difference arises?

Delirium

Noticed on page 13 of the report that 56% of people of no religion (incl. atheists+agnostics) have a 3rd level qualification, whearas it's 36% for the general population.

Doctor DooM

Sometimes, people amaze me.

However, 46 per cent of Irish Catholics believed it would make no difference to life in Ireland if the Catholic Church withdrew and 7 per cent expressed no opinion.

How can someone call themselves a Roman Catholic and believe this?!?!?

The Mad Hatter

Newaglish wrote: »

It's actually outrageous that they count 297,944 people between the ages of 0 and 4 as Roman Catholic. THEY CAN'T EVEN READ!

Babies are mom-and-dad-ian.

Beruthiel

Newaglish wrote: »

Females are 85.4% Roman Catholic and 4.9% No Religion, while Males are 82.9% Roman Catholic and 6.9% No Religion. I wonder where the difference arises?

I have no idea whatsoever why this appears to be the case.

If I were a man, and wanted to say something utterly sexist, I'd mention the word logic in a sentence.....

Doctor DooM

Beruthiel wrote: »

I have no idea whatsoever why this appears to be the case.

If I were a man, and wanted to say something utterly sexist, I'd mention the world logic in a sentence.....

Ah now, no priviledged mansplaining, people might feel unsafe.

Beruthiel

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Ah now, no priviledged mansplaining, people might feel unsafe.

If you're squirming in your seat Dr. D, my work here is done.

Dave!

Controversial from the CSO

It’s a fact!
56% The percentage of persons with no religion (incl. Atheist and Agnostic) with a third level
qualification
36% The percentage of the general population with a third level qualification

Dades

It's a fact! wrote:

1,279 The number of persons who described themselves as lapsed Catholics in 2011

Really? Really?

magicbastarder

is that down to demographics?

robindch

Laziness.

magicbastarder

bad timing - i was referring to the post above that.

GarIT

Newaglish wrote: »

(although technically they are I suppose)

To be an Athiest you have to believe that it is not possible there could be a god. If an Athiest was handed definitive proof of god they would still have to say there is no god. Agnostic would believe anything if it could be proven.

No Religion would be correct for children.

magicbastarder

GarIT wrote: »

To be an Athiest you have to believe that it is not possible there could be a god. If an Athiest was handed definitive proof of god they would still have to say there is no god.

not this again.

Galvasean

GarIT wrote: »

To be an Athiest you have to believe that it is not possible there could be a god. If an Athiest was handed definitive proof of god they would still have to say there is no god.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjwaqZfjIY

particularly in relation to spelling.

Newaglish

GarIT wrote: »

To be an Athiest you have to believe that it is not possible there could be a god. If an Athiest was handed definitive proof of god they would still have to say there is no god. Agnostic would believe anything if it could be proven.

No Religion would be correct for children.

I just don't care anymore.

magicbastarder

david quinn was on the right hook to talk about the increasing number of people choosing 'no religion'. an obvious choice.

Dave!

magicbastarder wrote: »

david quinn was on the right hook to talk about the increasing number of people choosing 'no religion'. an obvious choice.

Did George Hook manage to get through the segment without insulting atheists?

Can't stand that fat fúck.

magicbastarder

he's on holidays. there's some chap whose name escapes me who is covering for him, and is unnecessarily combative. he didn't give quinn a bad time, but quinn didn't really say anything remarkable, from what i heard.

darjeeling

When the first report came out earlier this year, we didn't have a proper breakdown by age group of the percentage of people having no religion. Now we do.

Overall % no religion has gone up across all age groups except the over 85s. Amongst the over 60s, it seems people haven't individually changed their beliefs much since the last census. Adults aged 30 to 60, though, have apparently become slightly less religious since last surveyed (around a percentage point or so for all age cohorts). Younger adults continue to show a marked increase in declaring themselves non-religious at around the age they leave home.

We can see a clear increase in the percentage of children classed as having no religion. The least religious children of all are those under one year of age, amongst whom 6.5% have no religion. This fits with the increase in recent years in adults of parenting age who declare that they have no religion.



Edit: added 2002 data too.

robindch

magicbastarder wrote: »

david quinn was on the right hook to talk about the increasing number of people choosing 'no religion'. an obvious choice.

So a fundamentalist religionist is invited on to discuss a massive rise in the number of non-religionists?

As an atheist, I therefore look forward to being invited by Mr Hook to discuss the tiny increase in the percentage of people who self-describe as "catholics".

jhegarty

koth wrote: »

Noticed on page 13 of the report that 56% of people of no religion (incl. atheists+agnostics) have a 3rd level qualification, whearas it's 36% for the general population.

That one is easy.

Look at the graph above and you will see that the higher numbers for no-relegion are in the age group 20-40.

These are the age group who first had free 3rd level and hence a far bigger percentage will have have a 3rd level qualification then the older group (40+) where one had to pay for the privilege.

Gbear

jhegarty wrote: »

That one is easy.

Look at the graph above and you will see that the higher numbers for no-relegion are in the age group 20-40.

These are the age group who first had free 3rd level and hence a far bigger percentage will have have a 3rd level qualification then the older group (40+) where one had to pay for the privilege.

While the horrors of the catholic church sex abuse scandal could possibly explain the decline those figures could indeed suggest that increased education leads to less religion, which is hardly controversial at this stage anyway.

GarIT

Galvasean wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjwaqZfjIY

particularly in relation to spelling.

Whats wrong about it? That's even what they teach in Secondry schools in Ireland.

The Mad Hatter

GarIT wrote: »

Whats wrong about it?

The first sentence and the second sentence.

And the spelling of atheist.

Peregrinus

Obliq wrote: »

Interesting to note that we atheists have no disparity like this: "A FEATURE of recent surveys on Irish Catholicism has been the findings of a steady decline in weekly Mass attendance. The Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll, published today, shows 34 per cent of Catholics in the Republic attend Mass at least once a week."
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0605/1224317296134.html

I wouldn’t be so sure!

Since atheism doesn’t import any kind of practice requirement comparable to mass attendance, an exact analogy isn’t possible. But it could well be that a fair chunk of the 277,237 that koth mentions fail to conform to the platonic ideal of an atheist, so to speak, except that nobody has measured this yet.

They’ve measured it in the US, of course. (There are measures of everything there, if you look hard enough.) And there are some slightly surprising findings.

Among American atheists and agnostics, for example - that’s not including the no-religionists; it’s people who actively identify as atheist or agnostic - 16% say that religion is either very important or somewhat important to them. (Comparable figure for those the no-religionists: 42%; for those with a religious affiliation; 91%). 7% of atheists/agnostics say they are religious; 34% are spiritual but not religious; only 57% are neither. Startlingly, 24% of atheists/agnostics are either absolutely certain or fairly certain of the existence of a god or universal spirit. Another 14% have some degree of openness to the possibility while only 54% exclude it entirely. 6% of atheists/agnostics report that they pray daily(!) and a further 11% at least monthly. 75% of atheists/agnostics believe that religion plays an important role in helping the poor, 73% that it is important in building community bonds and 35% think that churches, etc, contribute a great deal, or some, to solving important social problems. 35% also agree that churches, etc, protect and strengthen morality in society.

Of course, these findings wouldn’t necessary be replicated in a study of Irish atheists and agnostics. Still, there’s a striking contrast there between some of those findings and the model of atheism/agnosticism which predominates on this Board. You can’t help feeling that if a similar study were undertaken of the view and attitudes of Irish atheists/agnostics, there might be a couple of “disparities” lurking in there.