Northern Ireland: Macro Political Developments
Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has an area of 13,483 square kilometres (5,269 square miles), covering six of the nine counties which make up the Province of Ulster,10 and a population of 1,648,960 at June 1995 (Department of Finance & Personnel & H. M. Treasury, 1997). This compares with 3,503,000 living in the Republic of Ireland. Based on census data collated in 1991, 42.1per cent of the population is Catholic and 57.9per cent non-Catholic (Jardine, 1994). Most of the population live in the east of the Province, including about 490,000 in the urban area around the capital city Belfast.