Northern Ireland Good Relations Indicators Annual Update: 2018

The Good Relations Indicator report published by The Executive Office today presents a range of statistics relating to community relations, including numbers of hate crimes, attitudinal data on Protestant/Catholic relations and attitudes towards mixing in schools, neighbourhoods and the workplace. All figures 2017 unless otherwise stated.

The purpose of this publication monitors indicators for the four key priorities of the T:BUC Strategy: our children and young people; our shared community; our safe community; and, our cultural expression.

Some of the key findings include:

Our Children and Young People

• 49% of adults and 46% of young people think that relations between Protestants and Catholics are better now than they were five years ago.  Figures for the previous year were 59% and 52%, respectively.
• 70% of young people have ‘done projects’ with pupils from other schools, while 60% have ‘shared classes’, and 48% ‘shared sports facilities or equipment’.  

Our Shared Community

• 89% of respondents said they would prefer a mixed religion workplace, 78% a mixed religion neighbourhood and 68% mixed religion schools.
• 65% of respondents do not think Protestants and Catholics use different shops and services in their area, while a quarter of respondents think this does tend to happen. 

Our Safe Community

• In 2017/18, 576 sectarian, and 609 racially motivated hate crimes were recorded.  This is the first year that the number of racially motivated hate crimes has surpassed that of sectarian hate crimes.  Both have shown a decrease since 2016/17 (a decrease of 51 racially motivated and 118 sectarian hate crimes).
• 72% of the 661 households that presented as homeless due to intimidation in 2016/17 did so because of paramilitary intimidation.

Our Cultural Expression

• 80% of respondents think that the culture and traditions of Catholic communities, and of Protestant communities, add to the richness and diversity of Northern Ireland society. A significantly lower proportion think the culture and traditions of minority ethnic communities add to the richness and diversity of Northern Ireland society (68%). 
• 66% of adult respondents feel that their own cultural identity is respected by society, a decrease of 6 percentage points since the previous year.

The report is available on the Executive Office Statistics and Research Branch section of The Executive Office website.

Further information relating to the collection and production of the statistics can be obtained by contacting:

Notes to editors: 

Media enquiries should be made to The Executive Office Press Office on 028 9037 8201. Out of office hours please contact the duty press officer on 028 9037 8110.

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