Catholic baptisms in Ireland fall 30% in a decade
The number of children baptised as Catholic on the island of Ireland has fallen by 30% over the past decade, according to figures from Catholic dioceses compiled by the Iona Institute, a faith-based advocacy group.
Between 2015 and 2025, baptisms in the Dublin archdiocese declined by 40%, while excluding Dublin, the number of baptisms fell by 26% island-wide. The institute's summary document noted a fall in the number of births during the same period.
CSO figures show that births registered in the Republic fell from 65,909 in 2015 to 54,125 in 2025, almost 18%. Birth rates also fell 21% in Northern Ireland during the same period. In Dublin, births fell more sharply than in the Republic as a whole: 22% versus 18%.
Census 2022 found that 65% of children aged 0-4 were recorded as Roman Catholic, while 16% were recorded as having no religion. However, almost all mothers of children in this age group who identified as Catholic were still having their children baptised, according to the analysis of CSO data. This indicates that 'cultural Catholicism' remains a big factor in Irish life, the Iona Institute said.
There is considerable regional variation in the baptism figures. The Dublin archdiocese saw a 40% fall over the ten years, whereas the fall in Kerry was 22.3%. Down & Connor, which contains the city of Belfast, recorded a 38% fall, and the Meath diocese, which largely covers Co Meath and Co Westmeath, saw a 41% decline.
Dr Tom Finegan, chairman of the Iona Institute, said the figures were not a surprise given the rapidly falling number of births and growing secularisation. "Given that births have fallen by almost a fifth in the last ten years, and more people are ticking the 'No Religion' box in the Census, we could expect nothing but a big drop in baptism figures," he said.
He added: "We see that as at Census 2022, 67.9% of mothers with children aged 0-4 still identified as Catholic, even though a big majority of these would not be regular Mass-goers." Finegan also noted that the Vatican yearbook reported over 42,000 Catholic children were baptised in Britain in 2023. He said: "Ireland's fertility rate is now just 1.5, well below the replacement level of 2.1. This should be of concern to everyone, regardless of religious belief."
School patronage: a complex picture
While the baptism figures show a significant decline, support for Catholic patronage of primary schools has not dropped correspondingly, according to an Irish Times analysis of the Department of Education's survey on patronage. The survey showed support for change was strongest in certain areas like Dublin, Cork and Wicklow, but even there, support for changing from Catholic patronage was not as high as might be expected.
The Church of Ireland, a minority faith, emerged as the school patron with the highest support for change in patronage. Across Church of Ireland schools serving more than 100 households, 58% of parents favour a change to multidenominational education, with 85% wanting to see change at one school in North Dublin alone. Even in that scenario, 15% of parents would have to be accommodated elsewhere in a Church of Ireland school. A small minority cannot be forced into abandoning their preferred ethos.
Church of Ireland education spokesman Ken Fennelly was initially surprised by the support for change but, after consulting some principals, speculated that the framing of the survey question may have caused confusion. The question was: "Would you prefer your primary school to operate under a denominational (religious) patron or to operate under a multidenominational (non-religious) patron?" According to the Church of Ireland, some parents may have thought that their school was already multidenominational.
There are some 2,705 Catholic schools. According to the Irish Times analysis, at least 101 religious schools registered more than 50% support for change in patronage, but of those, only 24 serve 100 households or more. The multidenominational patron Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) estimated there are 217 Catholic schools, about 8% of the total, which should "actively consider" changing to a multidenominational ethos for September 2027. ETBI also found 61 Church of Ireland schools should actively consider a change, representing more than a third of fewer than 170 such schools.
At Scoil Chaitlín Maude in Tallaght, 69% of parents wanted a denominational ethos. The survey did not allow a 'don't know' or 'don't care' response.
The Iona Institute, of which the author of the Irish Times piece is a patron, estimates that about 60% of the drop in baptism figures can be accounted for by births falling by 17.9% in the Republic and 21.3% in the North. Correlating the baptism figures with Census 2022 shows that about 65.4% of children aged 0-4 were registered as Catholic and 15.6% as having no religion; corresponding figures for mothers were 67.9% and 15.7%.
The majority of those who still identify as Catholic are having their children baptised, while weekly Mass attendance figures are at historic lows of about 31%. Sociologists categorise religious faith as having three aspects: belief, behaviour, and belonging. Ireland's primary schools have an excellent academic record despite chronic underfunding, and most parents like their local primary school. The church would prefer fewer but more authentically Catholic schools.