Figures Show Islam Third-Largest Religion

November 29, 2007

Author: Patrick Logue

Source: The Irish Times

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/1129/breaking44.htm

Muslims are now the third-largest religious group in the State behind Catholic and members of the Church of Ireland, according to Census figures released by the Central Statistics Office today.

There number of people who said their religion was Islam was 32,500 in April 2006, when the Census was conducted across the State. The number represents a 70 per cent increase since 2002.

The figures also show that after Catholicism, the biggest recorded group is those who state they have no religion. Some 186,318 people said they had no religion, an increase of 35 per cent on the 2002 Census.

There are now 3,681,446 people who state their religion as Catholic, a 6.3 per cent increase on 2002. A total of 125,585 said they were Church of Ireland, 32,539 Muslim, 29,206 were members of other Christian religions, 23,546 were Presbyterian, 20,798 were Orthodox, 12,160 Methodist, and 57,928 members of "other stated religions".