Across parts of the English-speaking world, notable increases in Christian observance have been reported on.
The return to the Faith has been particularly tangible in the United Kingdom, where church attendance has jumped from 3.7 million in 2018 to 5.8 million in 2024, with the most sizeable increase being among young people. Catholicism has also been the largest beneficiary and is set to become the largest denomination for the first time since the Reformation. Last year, Westminster Diocese reported a 25 per cent increase in adult baptisms, receiving 500 people into the Church. This year the diocese is due to receive 800 into full communion, marking a 100 per cent increase in just two years. Other dioceses across the country are also reporting significant increases, and individual parishes, such as the Oxford Oratory, where 32 adults were received into the Church in February alone, have had to expand their RCIA classes.
However, what has not yet been widely reported is how the Faith in Ireland is faring. The country has traditionally been one of the most Catholic nations in Europe, where more than 80 per cent of the population attended weekly Mass in 1990. In recent years, aggressive secularisation has spread rapidly across the country, leading to dwindling priestly numbers and a fall in Mass attendance.
But a new report suggests that the decline of the Faith across the country may not have been as widespread as previously thought. Commissioned by the Irish bishops’ conference, co-authored by the religion statistician Stephen Bullivant, and drawing on data from the European Social Survey, a report entitled “Turning the tide? Report on recent religious trends on the island of Ireland” suggests that Ireland remains resiliently Catholic in the face of secularisation and that there are even signs of growth, particularly among those aged 16–29.
The report found that Ireland remains one of the most practising Catholic countries in Europe, with the fourth highest percentage of weekly Massgoers among baptised Catholics, behind Poland, Slovakia and Italy. It also found that religious affiliation remains relatively strong, with Ireland having one of the lower percentages of “nones” (those with no religious affiliation) in Western Europe. Only Italy and Portugal have a lower percentage of this group.
While the report acknowledges that data from the European Social Survey shows two decades of decline in Catholic practice across the country, the 2023–2024 data shows “a strong uptick in religious affiliation and religious practice”, which is “most strongly evident among those aged 16–29 years, across both Catholics and Protestants”.
The report also analyses data from Northern Ireland. The region remains the most religiously observant part of the United Kingdom and of the island of Ireland, with more than 40 per cent of Catholics attending Mass weekly or more. Some 69 per cent of Northern Ireland identifies as Catholic or another form of Christian, whereas just 37 per cent do so in the United Kingdom as a whole. Similarly, only 24 per cent of people in Northern Ireland profess no religion, a figure which stands at 32 per cent in the Republic of Ireland.
The apparent bucking of the secular wave in Ireland appears to be having a tangible effect on the ground. The Archdiocese of Dublin is set to receive a record number of converts into the Church this Easter. Some 129 catechumens and candidates will be received into the Church in Ireland’s largest diocese, which serves almost one million Catholics, on Easter Saturday. This marks an increase on last year’s class of 80, and an even greater rise from the pre-Covid number of 22 who presented themselves in early 2020.
Commenting on the report, Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, was reluctant to let the findings obscure the challenges facing the Church in the face of secularism. “I don’t think we should get ourselves too excited thinking this is a complete reversal of the very obvious decline in religious practice over the last 10 or 20 years,” the archbishop said. But he also acknowledged that the report “is seeing something”.
He encouraged Catholics to ask themselves: “How are we responding to this growing body of young people who want to know more about God, about Church and about religion?”
