This article is from page 4 of the 2007-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
THE number of “non-believers” in Clare has seen a massive increase of over 150 per cent in the past 15 years.
According to the latest statistics on religion from the 2006 Census, the number of people who state that they have “no religion” has jumped from 1,778 in 1991 to 4,680 in 2006 — a jump of 2,902 or 163 per cent.
The number of non-believers makes up 4.2 per cent of the Clare popula- tion of 110,950.
The figures also show that the
number of Roman Catholics has dropped marginally in percentage terms from 89 per cent to 88 per cent, although the numbers of Catholics has increased from 92,340 in 2002 to 98,189 to 2006.
The marginal percentage drop in Catholics comes against the back- ground of scandals for the Roman Catholic church in Ireland during the period between the two censuses showing that the Church remains quite a resilient institution.
The figures show that the Church of Ireland population in percentage terms remains more or less static; the
community by increasing from 1825 in 2002 to 1978 in 2006 accounts for 1.78 per cent of the population.
The number of Muslims in Clare 1s now 728 or .65 per cent with 493 liv- ing in Ennis.
Some 48 Jews live in Clare; during the 1930s and 1940s, there were no Jews recorded in Clare.
The 1961 Census recorded 4 Jews and the numbers in the Jewish com- munity have climbed slowly since.
The figures show that there are 333 Presbyterians in Clare, 332 Method- ists and 3,406 of other stated reli- gions.
According to consultant psychia- trist Dr Moosajee Bhamjee the fig- ures relating to non-believers “show that people are looking at life differ- ently now where church and state are not seen as the controlling institu- tions that they once were”.
Clare’s best-known Muslim added: “The Clare figures offer a micro- cosm of what is taking place in Irish ele iA
“The figures relating to the Mus- lims show that the Clare population is becoming more diverse and that we are all learning to live together,’ he said.