A Century of Change in Northern Ireland: Comparing the 1926 and 2021 Censuses
Date published:
New publication marks a century of change in Northern Ireland, comparing life in 1926 with 2021 across population, housing, and employment.
Overview
NISRA has today published Northern Ireland: A Century of Change in Statistics – A Comparison of Census 1926 and Census 2021.
The 18 April 2026 marked 100 years since the first Census of Northern Ireland was taken in 1926. To mark this centenary, NISRA has taken the results from the 1926 Census and compared them with the results from the most recent census taken in 2021, to provide insights into how Northern Ireland has evolved over the century.
Key findings
The population of Northern Ireland has grown significantly in the past 100 years and has an older age profile. Among the key takeaways are that people living here are better educated, have more living space, and are more likely to work in professional roles than they were a century ago.
The population has grown by more than half a million people, while number of persons per room has declined dramatically
Northern Ireland's population grew by 51% over the century, rising from 1.26 million to 1.9 million. The number of households nearly tripled, while average household size almost halved – falling from 4.54 to 2.44 people per home. In 1926, 18% of people lived in homes with more than two persons per room; by 2021, that had fallen to just 0.2%.
The population today has a much older age profile
The age profile of the population has shifted from a younger population to one that is older and more evenly distributed across the age groups, with notable changes in the proportions of the young and old. The proportion of the population aged under 20 years has decreased from 39% in 1926 to 25% in 2021, while the proportion of the population aged 65 and over has more than doubled, rising from 8% to 17% in the same period (an increase of almost 225,000 people).
Young people are now more likely to stay in education, and professional jobs now dominate the economy
Educational participation transformed dramatically. In 1926, only 7% of 17 to 19-year-olds remained in education. By 2021, that figure had risen to 76%. The nature of work changed too, with professional occupations such as teachers, engineers and dentists growing from 3% of employment to 31%, while agriculture and manufacturing declined sharply.
The population is more diverse today
Society became more diverse across every measure. The share of residents born outside the UK and Ireland rose ten-fold from 0.6% to 6.5%. Religious affiliation shifted significantly, with those reporting no religion rising from virtually none in 1926 to 17% of the population by 2021.
A note on 1926 Census household returns for Northern Ireland
Unlike records from the 1926 Census for the Republic of Ireland – released by the National Archives of Ireland on 18 April – individual household returns for Northern Ireland from the 1926 Census are not held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) or by NISRA. They are understood to have been destroyed, possibly during the Second World War.
The new NISRA report draws on published, aggregate census data from 1926, meaning population-level trends can still be analysed and compared with 2021.