Local Councils in Northern Ireland by community make-up

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of Local Councils in Northern Ireland, broken down by their Protestant/Catholic make-up.

In the 2001 decennial census, the Census Office for Northern Ireland (CONI) asked a new question to attempt to achieve a more accurate depiction of the balance of the mainly unionist Protestant and mainly nationalist Catholic communities across Northern Ireland.

As well as asking the traditional question of "Religion?" - to which over 13% of respondents gave no answer - it also asked "Religion brought up in?" to capture those who are no longer religiously active themselves. The combination of the two questions gives a community background for over 97% of the population.

These figures are presented here as the best assessment available of the community balance, without implying any particular significance to the absolute figures. Not all Protestants are unionists, and not all Catholics are nationalist. For information on recent communal conflicts in Northern Ireland, see the Troubles.

These figures at district level mask wide variations on smaller scales. In the Belfast City Council area, the figures at ward level vary from 95% Protestant to 99% Catholic.

Local Council areas with Protestant majorities

Key	District	Protestant	Catholic	Majority
8	Carrickfergus	85.1	8.7	76.4
2	Ards	82.5	12.6	69.9
24	North Down	80.5	12.6	67.9
9	Castlereagh	76.9	18.3	58.7
23	Newtownabbey	76.2	19.4	56.8
4	Ballymena	76.3	21.0	55.3
17	Larne	71.7	25.2	46.6
10	Coleraine	69.4	27.2	42.2
6	Banbridge	66.0	31.5	34.6
5	Ballymoney	66.2	31.9	34.3
19	Lisburn	62.8	33.4	29.4
1	Antrim	56.7	38.6	18.0
12	Craigavon	52.9	44.7	8.2
7	Belfast	48.6	47.2	1.4
3	Armagh	50.0	48.7	1.3

Local Council areas with Catholic majorities

Key	District	Catholic	Protestant	Majority
22	Newry and Mourne	80.6	18.5	62.2
13	Derry	75.4	23.2	52.2
25	Omagh	69.1	29.7	39.4
26	Strabane	66.2	33.3	32.9
11	Cookstown	64.2	34.6	29.6
20	Magherafelt	64.1	34.8	29.3
14	Down	61.9	35.5	26.5
15	Dungannon and South Tyrone	60.8	38.2	22.6
21	Moyle	60.3	38.3	22.0
16	Fermanagh	58.7	39.8	18.9
18	Limavady	56.6	41.6	15.0