List of districts in Northern Ireland by national identity

This is a list of local government districts in Northern Ireland by national identity.

In 2011 the decennial UK Census asked respondents for the first time "How would you describe your national identity?” In Northern Ireland respondents were given a list of options (including British, Irish, and Northern Irish) from which they could choose as many as they wanted. The question was repeated in the 2021 census.

In 2011 British identity outnumbered Irish identity in twenty of the 26 old districts. In 2021 in five of these districts (Belfast, Moyle, Down, Fermanagh, and Cookstown) Irish identity now outnumbers British identity. In two more districts, Armagh and Limavady, British identity outnumbers Irish by a small amount, 2.9% and 0.1% respectively, down from 12% and 10.2% respectively.

Similarly, in the new districts, British identity outnumbered Irish identity in seven of the 11 districts. In 2021 Irish identity outnumbers British identity in Belfast, so British now outnumbers Irish in six of the 11 districts.

British identity was in a majority in ten districts (down from 11 in 2011) whereas in 2021 Irish national identity was numerically in a majority in two districts, Derry and Newry, where 61.3% and 60.5% respectively consider themselves as having an Irish national identity. This was an increase of 6.3% and 7.5% respectively over the number from 2011.

British identity was a majority in six of the new districts in 2011, and down to five in 2021. Irish was in the majority in only Derry and Strabane in 2011, and was in the majority Derry and Strabane and Newry, Mourne and Down in 2021.

2021 Census National Identity by 2014 Local Government District

District British Irish Northern Irish Change in British from 2011 Change in Irish from 2011 Change in Northern Irish from 2011 Relative Change in Irish compared to British Antrim and Newtownabbey 55.5 20.8 36.0 -6.7 4.8 5.1 11.5 Ards and North Down 67.4 10.7 40.3 -5.0 2.4 7.9 7.4 Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon 44.2 29.8 30.4 -6.3 4.6 1.5 10.9 Belfast 36.8 40.3 27.6 -6.5 5.2 0.7 11.6 Causeway Coast and Glens 50.0 25.4 35.2 -4.3 4.0 3.9 8.3 Derry and Strabane 22.5 57.5 24.9 -3.7 6.7 -1.6 10.5 Fermanagh and Omagh 29.0 44.7 29.9 -4.3 6.4 -1.1 10.7 Lisburn and Castlereagh 57.0 20.6 36.6 -8.4 5.8 6.1 14.2 Mid and East Antrim 65.3 11.3 35.9 -6.1 2.1 6.5 8.2 Mid Ulster 28.2 44.2 26.3 -4.3 5.4 -3.0 9.6 Newry City, Mourne and Down District 23.5 51.9 28.8 -5.0 7.6 -1.6 12.6

National Identity by 1993 Local Government District The Local Government Districts listed below are no longer the official local administrative districts. However the 2021 census provides data relating to the older districts so they can be compared.

District British Irish Northern Irish Change in British since 2011 Change in Irish since 2011 Change in Northern Irish since 2011 Relative Change in Irish compared to British Antrim 48.4% 25.4% 34.4% -6.8% 5.3% 4.0% 12.1% Ards 69.3% 9.3% 39.5% -4.3% 1.8% 7.6% 6.1% Armagh 40.0% 37.1% 27.3% -4.4% 4.7% 0.2% 9.1% Ballymena 61.8% 13.4% 32.9% -7.2% 2.3% 5.0% 9.5% Ballymoney 56.6% 19.9% 35.5% -4.0% 3.5% 4.6% 7.5% Banbridge 53.5% 21.9% 37.2% -7.6% 5.7% 5.4% 13.3% Belfast 37.0% 39.4% 27.5% -6.2% 4.6% 0.7% 10.8% Carrickfergus 71.7% 6.9% 38.7% -4.8% 1.6% 8.4% 6.4% Castlereagh 57.6% 20.3% 37.7% -8.6% 5.6% 6.4% 14.2% Coleraine 57.8% 17.3% 36.7% -4.6% 2.8% 5.1% 7.4% Cookstown 32.0% 40.6% 30.0% -5.3% 7.1% -2.1% 12.4% Craigavon 41.7% 29.6% 29.1% -6.6% 4.0% 0.4% 10.6% Derry 20.1% 61.3% 23.2% -3.6% 6.3% -1.4% 9.9% Down 33.2% 39.6% 36.1% -7.0% 7.4% 2.0% 14.4% Dungannon and South Tyrone 26.5% 42.4% 23.9% -4.4% 3.6% -3.2% 8.0% Fermanagh 32.9% 41.9% 29.1% -4.3% 5.8% -0.4% 10.1% Larne 64.8% 12.4% 38.7% -5.0% 2.3% 7.3% 7.4% Limavady 37.3% 37.2% 34.1% -4.9% 5.2% 3.4% 10.1% Lisburn 48.3% 30.6% 32.6% -7.3% 5.9% 3.9% 13.2% Magherafelt 27.8% 49.3% 26.5% -3.6% 6.6% -3.3% 10.2% Moyle 36.4% 39.6% 31.8% -2.2% 5.5% -0.3% 7.8% Newry And Mourne 16.8% 60.5% 23.6% -3.4% 7.5% -4.0% 10.9% Newtownabbey 60.1% 17.7% 37.0% -6.4% 4.3% 5.8% 10.8% North Down 65.5% 12.1% 41.1% -5.6% 3.0% 8.1% 8.6% Omagh 24.3% 48.0% 30.8% -4.3% 7.1% -1.9% 11.4% Strabane 29.0% 47.3% 29.3% -4.0% 8.1% -2.5% 12.1%

National Identity by Religion by District

+ National identity by religion or religion brought up in for each districtDistrictCatholicProtestant and other ChristianOther Religion or None British Irish Northern Irish British Irish Northern Irish British Irish Northern Irish Antrim 16.2 53.4 31.6 76.6 4.3 36.0 52.8 9.6 37.4 Ards 26.1 39.7 39.9 78.7 4.3 38.1 62.5 7.4 45.2 Armagh 4.6 70.3 22.9 78.7 4.2 31.9 39.5 13.7 28.9 Ballymena 16.9 45.2 32.5 79.1 2.9 32.5 54.7 7.1 36.8 Ballymoney 12.7 55.2 35.3 79.2 3.1 35.2 60.8 7.4 38.4 Banbridge 14.5 53.8 35.8 77.3 4.6 37.1 51.2 11.8 43.0 Belfast 8.4 72.0 20.7 73.6 6.8 35.7 39.0 14.9 29.2 Carrickfergus 32.0 31.2 41.0 79.3 3.5 37.0 62.2 7.2 44.5 Castlereagh 14.1 60.4 31.5 76.9 5.2 38.9 55.5 12.4 42.8 Coleraine 19.3 46.2 34.4 76.8 5.1 36.4 52.5 10.7 43.1 Cookstown 5.4 63.8 29.0 78.5 3.6 31.9 34.0 14.9 28.3 Craigavon 8.4 57.5 25.1 78.3 4.0 33.4 40.7 10.5 29.5 Derry 5.1 77.8 20.0 72.2 7.7 34.0 34.9 29.1 29.2 Down 13.4 57.5 34.9 72.3 7.3 37.5 43.2 19.1 40.2 Dungannon 4.1 62.1 20.6 76.6 4.0 31.7 26.6 12.5 22.5 Fermanagh 7.9 65.4 27.2 73.3 6.4 32.5 39.5 18.8 28.4 Larne 29.2 39.5 39.8 79.0 3.4 37.4 59.0 7.6 43.3 Limavady 12.8 58.7 33.5 78.1 3.8 33.8 46.5 14.2 43.1 Lisburn 11.2 68.3 23.9 76.3 5.7 38.0 53.3 11.7 38.4 Magherafelt 4.7 71.1 24.8 80.2 3.5 29.9 41.3 14.6 31.0 Moyle 10.3 64.2 29.7 75.8 4.7 34.0 47.8 15.8 38.2 Newry And Mourne 4.4 73.8 21.7 72.6 6.4 32.4 29.0 26.0 24.4 Newtownabbey 16.2 56.5 30.9 78.7 3.9 37.9 57.3 9.4 43.6 North Down 28.7 39.9 38.8 75.9 6.5 40.4 58.3 10.1 45.2 Omagh 5.7 65.2 29.3 75.1 4.5 35.2 35.4 16.6 31.2 Strabane 5.5 68.8 27.8 77.3 4.4 32.1 37.7 25.2 34.2

Main Changes 2011 to 2021

The main changes between the 2011 and 2021 censuses can be summarized as: British outnumbered Irish in 20 out of the 26 old districts in 2011. In 2021 British outnumbered Irish in 15 old districts. In two of the old districts, the difference was less than 3%: Armagh 2.9% and Limavady 0.1%. Belfast switched from predominantly British to predominantly Irish British outnumbered Irish in seven of the 11 new districts in 2011, and six of the new districts in 2021. Every district, old and new, had a drop in those identifying as British Every district, old and new had an increase in those identifying as Irish Relative change from British to Irish was between 6.1% in Ards, and 14.4% in Down in the old districts Relative change from British to Irish was between 7.4% in Ards and North Down and 14.2% in Lisburn and Castlereagh in the new districts. The largest increases in Irish relative to British, of over 13%, was concentrated in the districts close to and to the south of Belfast In the 2011 old districts more Catholics identified as British than Irish in Ards, North Down, Larne, and Carrickfergus. In 2021, only in the Carrickfergus district were slightly more Catholics identifying as British than Irish (32% vs 31.2%)

2011 Census Irish national identity was numerically in a majority in two districts, Derry and Newry, where 55.03% and 52.09% respectively consider themselves as having an Irish national identity. Whilst 45.14% of the population of Northern Ireland said that they were either Catholic or that they had been raised Catholic, only 28.35% described their nationality as Irish. In the Larne Borough Council area the percentage of Catholics was 24.87% and the figure for Irish nationality was 10.1%, meaning that no more (and almost certainly less) than 32.40% of Catholics described themselves as having an Irish nationality.

British nationality was numerically in a majority in eleven districts. The fact that the overall number of people who described their nationality as British (48.41%) is very similar to the proportion who said that they were from a Protestant community background (48.36%) is not tantamount to proving that all Protestants see themselves primarily as British. In nine of Northern Ireland's 26 council areas, British nationality was a higher proportion than the number of Protestants. For example, in the Down District Council the figure for British nationality (40.21%) is 123.38% of the figure for Protestants (32.08%), meaning that, even if every single Protestant were to have chosen a British nationality, a substantial amount of those choosing a British nationality were evidently not Protestant.

Northern Irish nationality was geographically evenly spread throughout the region. There was no strong correlation between Northern Irish nationality at local government level and religion or community background. For instance the two highest areas of Northern Irish national identity were Down (34.12%) and North Down (32.95%); the former being mostly Catholic (62.51%) and the latter being mostly Protestant (73.23%).

There was a British national identity majority or plurality over Irish nationality in 20 of the 26 council areas, and there was an Irish national identity majority or plurality over British national identity in 6 of the 26 council areas.

National Identity by District

District British Irish Northern Irish English, Scottish or Welsh All Other Antrim 55.2% 20.1% 30.4% 2.3% 3.9% Ards 73.6% 7.5% 31.9% 1.9% 1.5% Armagh 44.4% 32.4% 27.1% 1.1% 3.9% Ballymena 69.0% 11.1% 27.9% 1.4% 3.8% Ballymoney 60.6% 16.4% 30.9% 1.7% 1.7% Banbridge 61.1% 16.2% 31.8% 1.5% 1.8% Belfast 43.2% 34.8% 26.8% 1.5% 5.1% Carrickfergus 76.5% 5.3% 30.3% 2.1% 1.8% Castlereagh 66.2% 14.7% 31.3% 1.5% 2.6% Coleraine 62.4% 14.5% 31.6% 2.0% 3.2% Cookstown 37.3% 33.5% 32.1% 1.2% 3.7% Craigavon 48.3% 25.6% 28.7% 1.4% 6.4% Derry 23.7% 55.0% 24.6% 1.4% 2.0% Down 40.2% 32.2% 34.1% 1.9% 2.0% Dungannon and South Tyrone 30.9% 38.8% 27.1% 0.9% 9.6% Fermanagh 37.2% 36.1% 29.5% 1.7% 3.1% Larne 69.8% 10.1% 31.4% 2.1% 1.2% Limavady 42.2% 32.0% 30.7% 1.5% 1.4% Lisburn 55.6% 24.7% 28.7% 2.0% 2.4% Magherafelt 31.4% 42.7% 29.8% 1.0% 2.8% Moyle 38.6% 34.1% 32.1% 2.2% 1.4% Newry and Mourne 20.2% 53.0% 27.6% 1.2% 4.3% Newtownabbey 66.5% 13.4% 31.2% 1.3% 2.4% North Down 71.1% 9.1% 33.0% 3.0% 2.4% Omagh 28.6% 40.9% 32.7% 1.1% 3.4% Strabane 33.0% 39.2% 31.8% 1.4% 1.3%