Dramatic fall in Irish religious belief

[ATraveller]

The number of people in the Republic of Ireland who identify as having no religion has increased by 73.6%, according to the latest census figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The number of people who stated they had no religion increased from 269,800 to 468,400, the census found.

Some 3,729,100 people identified as Catholic - 78.3% of the population - compared to 84.2% in April 2011.

The census was held in April 2016; its details were released on Thursday.

The number of people identifying as members of the Church of Ireland dropped by 2% to 126,400.

There were 63,400 Muslims in the state compared to 49,200 in 2011 - a percentage change of 28.9%.

Orthodox Christianity saw a rise of 37.5% to 62,400 adherents, while the number of Hindus rose by 34.1% to 14,300 practitioners.

bbc.com/news/world-europe-39516154
The percentage of 73.6% is large but think of it this way, an increase of 1 to 2 is a 100% increase. On the other hand, the self-identification method masks the problem to an extent. It’s obvious without the census that the Irish Republic has reached or at least is close to where most of Western Europe is right now from attendance rates figures and the SSM referendum, discussion of abortion legalisation.