The gap in Northern Ireland between those who classify themselves as Protestant and those who classify themselves as Catholic has narrowed to 3 percentage points, according to the latest Northern Ireland census results.
Information on the categories of "Religion" and "Religion Brought up in" showed that 45 per cent of the population were either Catholic or brought up as Catholic, while 48 per cent belonged to or were brought up in Protestant, Other Christian or Christian-related denominations.
This compares to a breakdown of 43.76 per cent Catholic, 53.13 per cent Protestant reported in the last census in 2001.
A further 0.9 per cent belonged to or had been brought up in Other Religions and Philosophies, while 5.6 per cent neither belonged to, nor had been brought up in, a religion.
One in six people said they were of no religion or did not state a religion on the census form.
Almost three-fifths (59 per cent) of people usually resident in Northern Ireland held a UK passport, just over a fifth (21 per cent) held an Irish passport, while 19 per cent held no passport.
View NI Census: Religion/religion brought up in in a full screen map. Interactive graphic provide by The Detail.
The overall population of Northern Ireland increased by 7.5 per cent (125,600) to 1.811 million between 2001 and 2011, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, which has this morning released further results from the 2011 Census, held on March 27th, 2011.
The population of children aged under 16 years fell from 24 per cent in 2001 to 21 per cent in 2011, while the proportion of people aged 65 years and over rose from 13 per cent to 15 per cent over the same period.
View NI Census: Stated Religion in a full screen map
The number of lone parent households with dependent children (where the lone parent was aged 16 to 74 years) increased by 27 per cent, from 50,500 in 2001 to 63,900 in 2011.
English was not the main language for 3.1 per cent of residents aged 3 years and over. The most prevalent main language other than English was Polish which was the main language of 17,700 people or 1 per cent of the population.
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View NI Census: National Identity in a full screen map
Among those aged 3 years and over, 11 per cent had some ability in Irish in 2011 compared with 10 per cent in 2001, while 8.1 per cent of people had some ability in Ulster-Scots.
There were 703,300 households in Northern Ireland in 2011, an increase of 12 per cent or 76,600 households when compared to 10 years ago.
The main household types were detached houses or bungalows, accounting for 37 per cent of household spaces, semi-detached houses or bungalows which made up 28 per cent of overall housing, terraced properties (25 per cent) and purpose-built flats or apartments (8.6 per cent).
The number of households renting from a private landlord increased by 128 per cent, from 41,700 in 2001 to 95,200 in 2011, effectively doubling the share of all households accounted for by private renting from 6.6 per cent in 2001 to 14 per cent in 2011.