Offaly people are religious and Irish speaking according to Census figures

The figures contained in the 2016 Census show that Offaly people are religious and Irish speaking.

Just 4.5% of the population in Offaly stated that they had 'No Religion' which is considerably lower than the national and provincial figure. Nationally, 9.8% of the population stated that they had 'No Religion' while the figure for Leinster was higher again at 11.5%.

The total number of Catholics in the country has fallen by 132,200 from 3,861,300 to 3,729,100. The number of Muslims increased by 14,200 over the five years and the number of Orthodox increased by 17,000, or 37.5 per cent.

27,807 people in Offaly (36% of the population) stated that they could speak Irish. Within this figure, 599 spoke Irish daily outside the education system, while 1,642 spoke Irish weekly outside the education system.

Nationally, 1,761,420 people stated that they were able to speak Irish, with 73,803 speaking Irish daily outside the
education system and 111,473 doing so weekly.

ALSO FROM THE CENSUS:Population of Offaly increases by less than 2% since 2011

ALSO FROM THE CENSUS: Divorce and separation rate in Offaly above the national average

ALSO FROM THE CENSUS: Offaly is getting older as average age jumps by 1.5 years