Northern Ireland is the northeastern part of the island of Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom, and borders the Republic of Ireland to the south. As of 2021 the
was estimated to be 1.9 million, with around 345,000 people living in the capital, and largest city of
. The region has a politically complex history with regard to the religious and national identity of it's inhabitants, which, broadly speaking, associates Protestantism with British Unionism, and Catholicism with Irish unity. Between the late 1960s and late 1990s, these differences erupted into a three-decade long conflict between these two communities known as
, with much of the violence ending after the Good Friday agreement of 1998. In recent years, the issue of
has added an extra-dimension to the status of Northern Ireland, especially regarding
on the UK's only land border, between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Key figures on Northern Ireland's economy
In 2021 the
gross domestic product of Northern Ireland amounted to 48.4 billion British pounds, compared with 44.4 billion pounds in 2020, a GDP growth rate
growth rate of around nine percent. This equated to a
GDP per head of around 25,399 pounds compared with 23,406 in the previous year. A more recent indicator of Northern Ireland's economy is the
unemployment rate, which as of the second quarter of 2023 was 2.7 percent. Although Northern Ireland's unemployment rate is often below the
rest of the UK, Northern Ireland also has the highest
economic inactivity rate in the UK. The
average number of hours worked by full-time workers in Northern Ireland was around 36.6 hours a week in 2023, and has not recovered to the pre-pandemic levels. Like the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland has suffered from high
inflation since 2022, one of the main causes of the ongoing
cost of living crisis.
Crime and education comparisons with rest of UK
The
crime rate of Northern Ireland in 2022/23 was 58.4 crimes per one thousand people which was quite far below the crime rate of 93.6 for England and Wales reported in the same period. Although in recent years there has been fairly significant crimes rises across the UK, Northern Ireland's crime rate has remained fairly stable, with crime increasing, but not as rapidly. In 2022/23, there were 111,571
crimes reported by the police in Northern Ireland, compared with 106,621 in 2021/22. In the most recent reporting year there were 24
homicides in Northern Ireland, down from 45 in 2002/03. In terms of the Northern Ireland education system, there were approximately 348,925
pupils attending around 1,079
schools, which were staffed by almost 18,700 full-time
teachers. As of the 2022/23 academic year, there was an average of 17.4
pupils per teacher across Northern Ireland, although this increased to 25.6 at
nursery schools, which compared unfavorably to other parts of the UK.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no
liability for the information given being complete or correct.
Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
data than referenced in the text.
