Catholic baptisms in Ireland fall by nearly a third

The 30 per cent drop in Catholic baptisms in Ireland over the past ten years has been driven by falling births and secularisation in wider society according to the authors of a new research paper.

Baptism Trends in Ireland, the first research of its kind, is based on data provided to the Iona Institute, a pro faith, pro family think tank, by almost every Catholic diocese on the island of Ireland.

Over the 10 years from 2015-2025 in which baptisms have fallen, births on the island of Ireland have fallen by 18.8 per cent.

Births fell by 17.9 per cent in the Republic of Ireland and 21.3 per cent in Northern Ireland.

The paper found that falling births account for about 60 per cent of the decline in baptisms with the rest accounted for by secularisation.

Dr Tom Finegan, chair of the Iona Institute said, “In a way the figures are not a surprise 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.”

Noting that Ireland’s fertility rate is now just 1.5, well below the replacement level of 2.1, he said this should be “of concern to everyone, regardless of religious belief”. The paper sets out figures for baptisms in each diocese and while regional variations can be seen, there is only one diocese which saw an increase in baptisms during the period 2015 – 2025, the Diocese of Elphin, where the percentage increase was 0.9 per cent.

The Archdiocese of Dublin saw a 39.9 per cent fall. The Irish capital has seen its birth rate fall by more than the national average, and it is also more secular than the national average.

The Diocese of Kerry saw a 22.3 per cent drop in baptisms.

The Diocese of Down and Connor, which includes Belfast city, recorded a fall of 37.9 per cent and the Diocese of Meath saw a drop of 40.8 per cent, even greater than Dublin.

Speaking to The Tablet, the head of the Iona Institute, David Quinn, said the baptism figures were “depressing from a Church point of view” but unsurprising when considered against the broader social context.

He noted that the 2016 census showed that the total number of children in the Republic aged 4 or younger was 330,000, and by Census 2022, that had gone down to 292,000: “So there was a 38,000 drop and it’s going to keep falling.”

Quinn said the Irish bishops are aware of what is happening. “If you are a bishop or a parish priest, you couldn’t help but notice that fewer babies are being baptised. You couldn’t expect anything but a decline in baptism, and a pretty sharp one at that, because it’s taking place against a much broader social context of decline.”

He also said that if this downward trend was being seen in baptisms, then it would also affect numbers presenting for communion, confirmations, and ultimately marriages further down the line.

“It will affect everything,” he said, adding that some rural schools particularly in the west of Ireland are beginning to worry about how they will keep the school open in years to come with a declining in population of children.

“So this is an across-the-board thing that doesn’t only affect the Catholic Church.” He said Presbyterian figures for Ireland had also shown that baptisms are down 36 per cent island-wide in the past decade.

The Baptism Trends in Ireland paper also found that two-thirds of children aged zero to four were designated as Catholic in the last census and about two-thirds of mothers aged 25 to 39 were also marked as Catholic,a nearly one-for-one match which suggests that those who tick the Catholic box in the census are nearly all having their babies baptised.

Quinn said these figures “show that ‘cultural Catholicism’ remains strong in Ireland”.

The 2022 census recorded that 67.9 per cent of mothers with children aged 0-4 still identified as Catholic, even though a majority of these would not be regular Mass-goers.

The census figures also indicated that there has been a much sharper decline in the number of Catholic weddings in Ireland compared to Catholic baptisms. Only a third of wedding ceremonies in Ireland now take place in a Catholic church, yet about two-thirds of babies are still being baptised. Quinn’s said, “There’s obviously a heap of couples that got married in hotels because hotels are a convenient one-stop location. But then when it comes to their child, they want a bit of ceremony, and they want a big day, and it’s still really only baptism that ticks that box properly. Alternative naming ceremonies don’t seem to have taken off in any serious way.”

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