Nearly 83% of Limerick people are Catholic, Census shows

NEARLY 83% of Limerick people declared themselves to be Catholic, the latest compilation of figures from last year’s Census shows.

The results of the 2016 nationwide survey show that Catholicism remains the predominant religion for 161,179 Limerick people.

However, this was down from 170,521 persons five years previously, in the 2011 Census.

The average age of Catholics in the county was 38.7 years, compared to the county’s overall average age of 37.7 years.

There were 3,741 Muslims in Limerick, making up 1.9% of its total population.

On average, Muslims in Limerick were 12.5 years younger (25.2 years) than the overall population in the county.

The next highest grouping was Church of Ireland, with 3,082 followers in Limerick, followed by Orthodox at 1,482.

Nationally, there were 63,443 Muslims in Ireland in April 2016, up from 49,204, or nearly 29%, five years previously.

Limerick’s Traveller population has risen by 12.3% in the past five years, by 182 to 1,658 people.

They made up just under one in 100, or 0.9%, of the county’s population, compared with 0.7% at national level.

There were more female (899) than male (759) Travellers.

More than four in 10 of all Travellers in the county were aged under 20, compared to under three in 10 (27.2%) of the county’s overall population.

The report also details how both the proportion and total number of Catholics has fallen since 2011, with Catholics comprising 78.3% of the population in April 2016, down from 84.2% in 2011. The number of people with no religion (including atheists and agnostics) increased by 73.6% to stand at 481,388 in 2016.

Offaly is the most Catholic county in Ireland while Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is the least Catholic, the Census shows.