Muslim community in Ireland - Growth in numbers continue 

There were 63,443 Muslims in Ireland in April 2016, representing 1.3 per cent of the population and signalling a continued growth in the number of Muslims in Ireland.  Ireland’s Muslim community has grown from just 3,875 persons in 1991, to 19,147 in 2002, 32,539 in 2006 and 49,204 in 2011. Since 2006 the number of Muslims has nearly doubled, increasing by 95 per cent.

Age and sex 

Looking back over the last ten years, the Census results show that there was an increase in the number of Muslims in every five year age group between 2006 and 2016. There were 147 Muslim males for every 100 females in 2006. This gap narrowed to 129 males per 100 females in 2016. 

The average age of Muslims in 2016 was 26.0 (compared with the State average of 37.4 years). 

There were 10,884 children of primary school-going age (5-12 year olds) among the Muslim community in Ireland and a further 5,480 of secondary school age (13-18 year olds).        

 

Interactive table: StatBank Link E8078

Marital status

Muslims in Ireland were less likely to be single and more likely to be married compared with the general population. Almost 6 out of 10 were married compared with 4.8 out of 10 for the general population. 

Divorce was less prevalent among Muslims with just 3.2 per cent in this category (892 persons) compared with 4.7 per cent for the general population. There were 473 widowed Muslims.

 

Interactive table: StatBank Link E8067

Nationality and ethnicity

Irish nationals represented the largest nationality group stated among Muslims in Ireland, accounting for 55.6 per cent of the total. A further 11.4 per cent had Pakistani nationality, the largest non-Irish group, followed by UK nationals (3.4%).

Muslims of Saudi Arabian nationality accounted for 2.9 per cent of all Muslims (1,775 persons) while Bangladeshi made up 2.0 per cent (1,209 persons) and Afghan 1.9 per cent (1,160 persons).

The majority of Muslim respondents stated Asian (42.2%) and African (17.1%) ethnicity, with much of the remainder citing Irish (6.8%) and “Other White” (10.9%) ethnicity.

 

Residence

Just under half (47.3%) of all of Ireland’s Muslims lived in County Dublin. Dublin City was home to the largest proportion (15.5%), followed by South Dublin (13.1%), Fingal (12.8%) and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (5.9%).

Limerick City and County (5.9%), Cork County (4.5%) and Cork City (3.6%) were the next most popular areas outside County Dublin. 

Leitrim has the least number of Ireland's Muslims, accounting for 0.4 per cent in 2016.

The economic status of Muslim men and women varied greatly with relatively small numbers of women at work and slightly above average numbers of men looking after the home and family.

Among Muslim men 53.3 per cent were at work in April 2016 with 17.0 per cent unemployed or looking for their first job. In contrast 23.6 per cent of Muslim women were working at the time of the census while a further 1 in 5 (19.5%) were unemployed.

In all 27.4 per cent of Muslim women aged 15 and over were looking after the home or family - significantly higher than the rate for all women at 14.9 per cent.

While 1.1 per cent of all men aged 15 and over were homemakers in 2016 the figure for Muslim men was higher at 2.3 per cent with 567 male homemakers. 

Interactive table: StatBank Link E8060

Major occupational groups of Muslims

There were 17,543 Muslims at work.

At a broad occupational level, 'professional occupations' was the largest category, accounting for 23.5 per cent of workers. Within this category medical practitioners were the largest occupation, with 2,102 workers and accounting for 12.0 per cent of all Muslim workers compared with 0.7 per cent for the total population.

The skilled trade occupations was the next highest broad category with 12.7 per cent of workers.  

Hindus in Ireland

Age and sex

There was a 135.6 per cent increase in the number of Hindus between 2006 and 2016 from 6,082 to 14,332 persons over the ten years.

Hindus are younger than the general population with an average age for men of 29.5 and for women 27.3 compared with 36.7 and 38.0 for the general population. There were 132 Hindu men for every 100 Hindu women in 2016, a ratio which has fallen from 157 per 100 ten years earlier.              

Interactive table: StatBank Link E8078

Social class

Hindus as a group were more concentrated in the higher social classes than the general population. 

More than twice the State average (18.4% compared with 8.1%) were classified to the professional class while 40.5 per cent lived in households classified to the managerial or technical class.

Fewer relative numbers were found in the skilled manual, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations than for the general population (16.1% and 28.2% respectively).

Interactive table: StatBank Link E8063

Nationality and ethnicity

In all 41.7 per cent of Hindus were of Indian nationality. This was followed very closely by Irish (41.6%), Mauritian (6.9%) and Nepalese (3.0%). 

Of the Hindus with Irish nationality (5,676 persons), 35.1 per cent were born in Ireland.

The census results show that 79.5 per cent of Hindus declared themselves to be of Asian (other than Chinese) ethnicity, compared with 80.4 per cent in 2011.

 

At work

Just over half (50.6%) of Hindus at work were in the broad occupational category 'professional'. Of all Hindus workers 15.0 per cent were programmers and software development professionals, see table 7.2.

Other Non-Christian religions

Among other Non-Christian religions the next largest in Ireland in 2016 was Buddhism which grew by 12.1 per cent between 2011 and 2016, from 8,703 to 9,758. Over half (53.7%) were Irish by nationality.

The Jewish religion recorded 2,557 persons in 2016 up from 1,984 persons in 2011 (28.9% increase).

A table detailing the full list of all religions recorded and the number of persons associated with each as per Census 2016 (both Christian and Non-Christian) can be found at the link below.

Interactive table: StatBank Link E8053