There are more Catholics than Protestant people living in Northern Ireland, the latest Census figures show.
For the first time in its 101-year-history, the Census reveals that of the resident population, 45.7% are either Catholic or brought up Catholic.
The percentage of the population who are either Protestant or were brought up Protestant is 43.5% while 9.3% of people said they neither belonged to nor were brought up in any religion.
The figure for the Catholic population has increased by 0.6% since the last census in 2011, while the figure for the Protestant population has fallen almost 5% during the same period.
One of the key reasons for the decline in the Protestant population is that it is an older, aging community with higher mortality.
The figures were published this morning by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).
The population of Northern Ireland when the census was carried out in March last year was 1,903,100, an increase of 5% since 2011 and the highest figure recorded since Northern Ireland was created.
