PEOPLE IN mixed-religion relationships in Northern Ireland tend to be better-educated and have higher incomes than those in traditional single-religion relationships, according to a new academic study.
The report, Intimate Mixing: Catholic-Protestant Relationships in Northern Ireland, carried out by Prof Gillian Robinson of the University of Ulster and Dr Katrina Lloyd of Queen's University Belfast, also indicated that those in mixed relationships tended to support the Alliance Party.
The academics used data from the Northern Ireland Life and Times surveys from 1998 to 2005 in arriving at their findings. Just over 800 people in mixed partnerships contributed to these eight surveys. Mixed relationships in the study referred to Catholics married to Protestants.
They found that people in mixed relationships were more likely to be younger, better educated and earn more than those in same-religion partnerships.
"The survey evidence shows a very slow increase in the numbers of people entering a mixed relationship over the last two decades in Northern Ireland, but the numbers are still small," reported Prof Robinson and Dr Lloyd.
They found that those in mixed relationships were more likely to send their children to a mixed religion school, more likely to support the Alliance Party and less likely to support nationalist or unionist parties than those in same-religion partnerships. They were also much more likely to say they were neither nationalist nor unionist and to have lived outside Northern Ireland.
Of those in mixed-religion partnerships, 12 per cent were unmarried compared with 4 per cent who were unmarried in same-religion relationships.
