19 December 2002

Census 2001: inaccuate forecasts

Despite recent headlines to the contrary, Gerry Moriarty in the subscription only Irish Times, believes the actual figures are good news for 'Protestants':

"The 53/44 figure will provide some reassurance for unionists who were confronted with a number of recent media reports suggesting that the Catholic population would be as high as 46 per cent and the Protestant/unionist population would be under 50 per cent."

"Such figures would have signified a dramatic rise in the Catholic population of 4 per cent in the 10 years since the last census, and an even more remarkable drop in the Protestant population of over 8 per cent. This would have essentially tallied with Sinn Féin's analysis that a united Ireland was achievable by 2016."

No comments: