NORTHERN IRELAND - Population
A young population
The population of Northern Ireland stands at nearly 1.7 million in 2002, representing an increase of 10 per cent compared to 1982, and accounting for 3 per cent of the total population of the United Kingdom. The share of people over 65 is regularly increasing while the opposite is true for people under 25. Mortality rates (8.6 deaths per thousand inhabitants in 2002) were slightly under the UK average (10.3 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants), whilst fertility rates (12.6 births per thousand inhabitants in 2002) were slightly higher than in the UK as a whole (11.3 births per 1,000 inhabitants). However, the difference in both rates have been slowly declining. As a consequence, the rate of natural increase (births minus deaths) has been much higher than in the UK as a whole. In 2002, the infant mortality rate was higher in the region (4.6 per thousand live births) compared to the UK as a whole (5.3 per thousand live births).
Net outward migration has been a characteristic feature of the demography of Northern Ireland since records began. This trend was evident in the late 1990's, although between 2001 and 2002, Northern Ireland experienced net inward migration of just under 100 people.
The overall population density is low (125 persons per square kilometre in 2002), although there is an uneven distribution within Northern Ireland, with Belfast recording the highest population density of 2,501 persons per square kilometre. Within that area, the population has tended to move from the city centre to the suburbs. The proportion of people living in rural areas is higher than in most regions of the UK, but there has been continuing migration from rural areas to the urban centres (notwithstanding the outward shift within the Belfast area) and from the west of the region to the east.
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