THE FAMILY

250,000 adults have experienced divorce or separation. Up sixfold since 1986
 
21.6 percent of children are being raised in lone parent families
 
6.4 percent of children are being raised by cohabiting couples
 
This accounts for 28 percent of all children or a total of 456,661
 
Number of children raised in lone parent families high by Western standards. (OECD average is 14.9 percent)
 
There are 143,600 cohabiting couples in Ireland
 
Our rate of cohabitation is higher than in the US
 
The number of people who are married is up because the size of the population has increased substantially
 
But the percentage of married adults has fallen to 49.6 percent. This is lower than the equivalent figure in the US
 
The percentage of married people over 18 in 1986 was 61 percent

David Quinn writes about the growing incidence of marital breakdown in his Irish Independent column. To read the column, click here.
 

RELIGION

84 percent of the population is Catholic adding up to 3.681 million people
 
This rises to 89 percent among Irish nationals
 
The Church of Ireland is the next biggest religion with 129,039 members
 
51 percent of non-Irish in Ireland are Catholics
 
269,881 people, or 5.6 percent, claim no religion
 
But only 3,905 said they are atheists (Note: there was no box marked ‘atheist’ in the Census questionnaire)
 
Non-Irish are three times as likely as Irish to say they have no religion (15 percent v 4.4 percent)
 
23 percent of non-Irish belong to another Christian church
 
A further 7 percent of non-Irish belong to a non-Christian religion

The Census report can be found here. Several more volumes are to be published between now and the end of the year.