The latest census figures for Northern Ireland point to a notable rise in the Catholic population.
The religious and British/Irish ethnic breakdown is not included in these latest statistics but there is a trend of a younger population in the traditionally nationalist west and south and an older population in the traditionally unionist heartland to the east.
The Protestant/Catholic ratio won't be published until December but based on figures for the North's 26 local government areas, it can be extrapolated that there is a significant growth in the Catholic population.
Overall the population of Northern Ireland has risen over the past ten years by 82,000 or 5 per cent to 1,685,267 based on the census taken on April 29th last year - 863,818 females, 821,449 males. This represents 2.9 per cent of the total UK population of 58,789,000.
Politicians will be most interested in the Protestant/Catholic breakdown, which ten years ago was 58 per cent/42 per cent. These figures will provide indicators of how unionist and nationalist parties will fare in elections over the coming years.
In recent weeks, one well-placed source predicted to The Irish Times that the Protestant/Catholic ratio from this census would be 54:46.
Certainly, based on some of the figures for local council areas, there appears to be, as one statistician put it, "an east/west split" in the Northern demography but it could take some time before this might be reflected in any very dramatic change in voting patterns.
For instance, Derry with a population of 105,000 has the youngest population in Northern Ireland. Of that number, 27 per cent or 28,000 are aged up to 15 years, and cannot vote. But they will gradually slip onto the electoral register, most likely to the benefit of nationalist parties.
It is also evident that there are greater younger populations in council areas with nationalist majorities to the south and west. For example one in four of the populations in areas such as Strabane, Omagh, Down, Dungannon, Newry and Mourne, Magherafelt, and Armagh is 15 or under.
These compare with figures a few percentage points lower for this category in unionist areas to the east. For example those 15 or under account for 20 per cent of the population of North Down, 21 per cent of Ards, 22 per cent of Castlereagh, and 22 per cent of Ballymena.
