People living in the Republic drink more alcohol, have more babies and own more cars per household than their Northern Ireland counterparts, according to figures published yesterday.
They show that people in the Republic work longer hours than people in Northern Ireland and are more likely to live in detached houses or bungalows. The most popular make of car in this State was Ford in 2002, while more NI motorists preferred Renault.
The data, from the Central Statistics Office and the NI Statistics and Research Agency, are published in the 2003 edition of Ireland, North and South: A Statistical Profile.
They show that the prevalence of drinking alcohol was higher for all age groups in the Republic than in Northern Ireland between 1998 and 2002.
The difference was most obvious in older people, and in women in particular. Some 70 per cent of women over 55 in the Republic said they drank alcohol, compared with 54 per cent in Northern Ireland. This was despite the fact that there were proportionately more older people in Northern Ireland than in the Republic.
The Republic had a proportionately higher number of people aged between 15 and 64, and this was reflected in its lower death rates and higher proportion of single people.
The statistics found that people in this State worked longer hours than their Northern counterparts. The average hours worked per week in the Republic was 37.2 compared with 35 in Northern Ireland.
In 2002 the Republic had a higher marriage rate, at 5.1 per 1,000 population, than Northern Ireland (4.5 per 1,000).
People living in this State were also more likely to own their homes outright than their Northern counterparts.
In 1999-2000 almost half of all households in the Republic owned their homes outright compared with less than one-third in the North.
Yet house prices increased by almost 100 per cent between 1997 and 2002 in the Republic while Northern Ireland prices increased by 45 per cent.
The statistics also showed that the second-level pupil-teacher ratio was lower in Northern Ireland than the Republic.
In 2001-2002 there were about 16 pupils per teacher in the Republic, compared with 14 across the Border.
Parents in Northern Ireland were more likely to immunise their children than parents in the Republic, the surveys found. The percentage of parents in Northern Ireland immunising children for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) was between 88 and 90 per cent in 2002 while the corresponding figure was between 70 and 75 per cent in the Republic.
The research found that agriculture was responsible for the employment of 6.9 per cent of the Republic's workforce in 2002, compared with 5 per cent in the North.
This State accounted for around 80 per cent of the total number of cattle and around three-quarters of the total number of sheep on the island of Ireland in the period from 1997-2002.
However, Northern Ireland accounted for about 55 per cent of the total number of poultry over the same period.
North-South differences
Religion: Catholics represented 88.4 per cent of the population in this State in 2002, compared with 40.3 per cent in Northern Ireland in 2001.
Meanwhile, Presbyterians represented 20.7 per cent of the population in the North, compared with just 0.5 per cent in the Republic.
Education: Undergraduates in the Republic were far more likely to undertake further study or training compared with those in Northern Ireland (47 and 28 per cent respectively). Some 60 per cent of NI graduates who qualified in 2000-2001 entered employment, compared with 47 per cent of undergraduates in this State.
Health: While more people in the Republic had visited a GP in the fortnight preceding the surveys than in the North, people in Northern Ireland had a more pessimistic view of their health. Some 17 per cent said their health was "not good" while 11 per cent of people in the Republic said their health was "poor" or "fair". The prevalence of smoking was similar in both jurisdictions and was greatest in the 18-34 year age group.
Transport: The rate of road deaths has been consistently lower in Northern Ireland. In 2002 the rate was 10.4 people per 100,000 population in the State, compared with 8.8 per cent in the North.Some 37.4 per cent of households in this State had two or more cars, compared with 29.3 per cent in NI.
Households and housing: The average household size in the Republic was 2.94 in 2002, compared with 2.58 in Northern Ireland. The Republic's birth rate was 14.5 per 1,000 population in 2000, compared with 12.8 in the North.
Births outside marriage accounted for 33.5 per cent of total births in the North in 2002, compared with 31.1 per cent in the Republic.
Employment: The unemployment rate as measured by the relevant censuses was higher in the Republic (8.8 per cent) than in Northern Ireland (7.1 per cent).
However, the long-term unemployed accounted for a greater percentage of unemployed people in Northern Ireland (42.8 per cent) than the Republic (33 per cent).
Source: Ireland, North and South: A Statistical Profile
