Catholic Church in Ireland
In the 2016 Irish census 78.3% of the population identified as Catholic in Ireland; numbering approximately 3.7 million people. Unlike Catholics in the United States, Ireland has seen a significant decline from the 84.2% who identified as Catholic in the 2011 census.
Catholic Church in Scotland
In the 2011 census, 16% of the population of Scotland described themselves as being Catholic, compared with 32% affiliated with the Church of Scotland. Many Catholics are Scottish Highland minorities or the descendants of Irish immigrants and of Highland migrants who moved to Scotland's cities and towns during the 19th century, when there was a potato famine in Ireland. However, there are significant numbers of Italian, Lithuanian, and Polish descent, with more recent Polish immigrants again boosting the numbers of continental Catholic Europeans in Scotland. Owing to immigration (overwhelmingly white European), it is estimated that, in 2009, there were about 850,000 Catholics in a country of 5.1 million. Between 1994 and 2002, Catholic attendance in Scotland declined 19% to just over 200,000. By 2008, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Scotland estimated that 184,283 attended Mass regularly.