Limavady town has slight Protestant majority

Elsewhere in the Borough, the Ballykelly area returned a small Catholic majority while in the once Unionist town of Dungiven there are now just 83 Protestant residents.

The latest batch of results from the 2011 census allow for a breakdown of population figures at the individual ‘ward’ area. The Limavady Borough is broken down into three ‘electoral’ areas: Bellarena, Benbradagh and Limavady Town. These areas are further broken down into a further fifteen ‘wards’, with census results now available for each of these fifteen wards in the Limavady Borough.

In Limavady Town, there are five ‘wards’, namely Roeside, Coolessan, Rathbrady, Greystone and Enagh. In the Roeside ward there were 822 Protestants on census day 2011, while there were 558 Catholics. In the Coolessan ward there were 471 Protestants and 913 Catholics. In Greysteone the figures were 620 Protestant, 672 Catholic; in Rathbrady there were 875 Protestants and 546 Catholics; and in Enagh there were 1,364 Protestants and 986 Catholics.

The Limavady Town electoral area is 51.08 per cent Protestant and 45.21 per cent Catholic – the actual figures showing 4,152 Protestants living in the Limavady Town area on census day 2011 and 3,675 Catholics. There are just 477 more Protestants in Limavady town than Catholics, out of a total population of 8,128 residents.

The most populous electoral area in the Limavady Borough is Bellarena, with the 14,304 residents on census day 2011 making up 42.66 per cent of the total population.

In Bellarena, there are 8,132 Catholic residents and 5,737 Protestant residents – 56.84 per cent and 40.11 per cent respectively. In terms of individual wards, of Magilligan’s 2,407 residents 1,328 are Catholic and 1,010 are Protestant. In Aghanloo, where 4,367 people reside, there were 1,819 Catholics and 2,391 Protestants.

Of Ballykelly’s 1,753 residents, 873 are Catholic and 833 are Protestant. In Greysteel, there are 2,791 Catholics and 776 Protestants. In Glack, there are 1,321 Catholics and 727 Protestants.

In the Benbradagh area, there are also five electoral wards, namely Feeny, the Highlands, Dungiven, Upper Glenshane and Forest. In Feeny on census day 2011 there were 1,924 Catholics and 264 Protestants and in the Highlands ward there are 967 Catholics and 965 Protestants. The Upper Glenshane ward has 2,117 Catholics and 332 Protestants and in the Forest ward there are 1,285 Catholics and 1,092. In Dungiven, where 2,022 people reside there are just 83 Protestants.

The 14,304 residents of the Bellarena electoral area, 56.84 per cent of whom are Catholic and 40.11 per cent of whom are Protestant, elect six representatives to the local council.

The 11,104 residents of the Benbradagh area, 73.91 per cent of whom are Catholic and 24.64 per cent of whom are Protestant, elect four representatives to the local council

The 8,128 residents of the Limavady Town electoral area, 45.21 per cent of whom are Catholic and 51.08 per cent of whom are Protestant, elect five representatives to the local council.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) released the further results from the 2011 Census, which was held on 27 March 2011.