Offaly is the most Catholic county in Ireland

Offaly is the most Catholic county in Ireland according to the latest results from 2016 Census published today by the Central Statistics Office. 

Catholicism remains the predominant religion, accounting for 87.0% (67,849) of Offaly’s population in April 2016. This was down slightly from 69,400 persons five years previously. The national rate is 78.3%

The average age of Catholics in the county was 37.5 years, compared with the overall average age of 37.2 years.

As with the State overall, the next largest group in Offaly was those with no religion. In 2011, the 1,957 people with no religion comprised 2.6% of the county’s population. By 2016, this had increased to 3,520 people comprising 4.5% of the county’s population. Their average age was 34.4 years, making them 2.8 years younger on average than the county’s population overall.

The 2,271 Church of Ireland members in Offaly made up 2.9% of its total population. On average, Church of Ireland members in Offaly were five years older (42.2 years) than the overall population in the county.

Orthodox (677) and Muslims (573) completed the top five.