Census 2006

I've just been revisiting the census 2006 figures and I've come up with an interesting statistic.

If Roman Catholics and Church of Ireland (the two traditional churches in the country) figures are removed, and if we define the categories of agnostic, atheist, lapsed RC, no religion and not stated as non-believers, it turns out that these outnumber all other religions in the country combined, at 6.12% versus 5.74% of the total population.

Looking at the figures in this way also reveals that non-believers are the second most numerous category, after Roman Catholic, and there are almost exactly twice as many non-believers as there are members of the Church of Ireland.

Interestingly the census designers did not allow a category for Humanists, who represent the only non-believing group that has been invited to take part in the government's "Structured Dialogue with Churches, Faith Communities and Non-Confessional Bodies".