Non-Religious Young People Now Lead in Northern Ireland | Column

Column. Non-religious young people are now the single largest belief group among 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland. For a place long defined by two Christian traditions, that is a remarkable shift.

The finding comes from ARK’s 2026 Young Life and Times survey, run by Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University. It questioned 1,965 teenagers. Some 39% said they belonged to no religion. Another 35% identified as Catholic, and 24% as Protestant or other Christian. Just 2% named another faith.

What the numbers say about non-religious young people

Precision matters here. Christians taken together still form a majority, at 59%. But “no religion” is now the biggest single answer. In a society where people were once sorted by which church their family attended, a large group is simply opting out.

Will they drift back as they age? The evidence suggests not. Humanists UK’s analysis of the 2024 British Social Attitudes survey found that 94% of 16 to 34-year-olds raised without religion still had none. Only 4% identified as Christian. That study covers Great Britain, not Northern Ireland. Still, it undermines the comfortable idea that unbelief is a phase.

Policy lags behind the people

Northern Ireland’s schools remain largely organised along religious lines. Northern Ireland Humanists argue that public policy is “out of step” with an increasingly non-religious society. Their coordinator, Boyd Sleator, says young people’s beliefs “deserve to be recognised in their own right”.

That is a modest request. It asks schools to teach religious and humanist worldviews fairly. It asks public services to treat everyone equally. Nobody loses anything real by granting it.

A pattern, not an exception

Northern Ireland is not alone. Free Thought Daily has tracked Australia’s surge in “no religion” answers, and similar trends run across much of Europe.

Atheists should resist triumphalism. Leaving religion is not the same as finding reason. The task now is to make sure these young people inherit institutions that respect their freedom of conscience. It is also to make sure they learn to think critically, whatever they conclude. Read the Humanists UK summary of the survey.

This is an opinion column. Fact basis: ARK Young Life and Times Survey 2026 summary and Humanists UK release (22 September 2026).