RELIGION

About two-fifths of the population is Roman Catholic, while more than one-fifth is Presbyterian, with less than one-fifth Episcopalian (Church of Ireland); Methodists and members of other sects make up most of the remainder. The distribution of Catholics and Protestants is, however, very uneven. In country districts the latter are in a majority in the north and east. Elsewhere they are in a minority, though fairly highly localized. Most towns have a Protestant majority: this is the case in Belfast, where Catholics make up less than one-third of the population. Towns remote from Belfast--Newry and Londonderry--are more than half Roman Catholic. In the towns there is a high degree of segregation of the sects, and mixing is minimal. Industrial western Belfast is split into two sectors along two axial roads. The Falls Road is as exclusively Catholic as the Shankill Road is Protestant. In many streets adjoining the boundary line, segregation is effectively complete. East Belfast has an exclusively Catholic core, but segregation is less apparent in the middle-class suburbs. Segregation increases as socioeconomic status decreases. Civil disturbances are almost always confined to locations in which segregation is highest. The proportions of the sects are changing slightly because of a differential in birth rate. In Belfast, for example, fertility rates in Catholic districts are much higher than in Protestant areas. There has been a relative decline of Protestants in the 20th century, though they have remained more or less stable in absolute numbers, and a relative and absolute increase of Catholics.