
Shoppers in Belfast in June 2020
(Picture: Getty Images)Census figures show that Catholics (45.7%) outnumber Protestants (43.5%) within the Northern Ireland population for the first time since the partition of the island of Ireland.
The shift could drive support for the region to split away from Britain and join a united Ireland, with the majority of Catholics, supporting reunification. Just 31.9% of those in Northern Ireland identified as ‘British-only’.