The green pale of the Irish flag symbolises Roman Catholics, the orange represents the minority Protestants. The white in the centre signifies a lasting peace and hope for union between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland.
As of 2023 there are now more Catholics than Protestants living in Northern Ireland, according to the most recent national census data, with a 42.3 percent share of Catholics to 30.5 percent Protestants, and a low 8.2 percent of inhabitants identifying as non-Christian religious. This is in contrast to when the country was first formed back in 1921. Intended to be a Protestant majority nation, six counties had been partitioned from Ireland, based on religious data from the 1911 census. Then, 34.4 percent of what would be Northern Ireland was Catholic and 61.4 percent was Protestant, a ratio of 1:2.
Every day of the year marks the anniversary of someone's death as a result of conflict in and about Northern Ireland. 3,720 people were killed as a result of the conflict. Approximately 47,541 people were injured. There were 36,923 shootings and 16,209 bombings were conducted. Between 1969 and 1998, 1,533 of the deaths as a result of the conflict were under the age of 25. 257 of those killed were under the age of 18. The largest age group (25% or 898 people) killed between 1969 and 1998 were those between the ages of 18 and 23.