Good Relations Indicators – An OFMDFM Report For 2015

Good Relations Indicators: 2015 OFMDFM Update Report

The Good Relations Indicator report published today presents a range of statistics relating to community relations, including numbers of hate crimes, attitudinal data on Protestant/Catholic relations and attitudes towards mixing in schools, dn_screenneighbourhoods and the workplace.

The purpose of the indicators is to monitor the state of good relations over time.

Our Children and Young People

52% of young people and 50% of adults think that relationships between Protestants and Catholics are better now than they were five years ago.

63% of young people report regularly socialising or playing sport with people from a different community background.

Our Shared Community

76% of schools were involved in shared education with another school in the previous year.

Nine in ten people say that they can be open about their cultural identity in their neighbourhood, and more than eight in ten say the same about their workplace.

Our Safe Community

In 2014/15, 1,043 hate crimes were sectarian in motive, and 921 were racially motivated. The number of other hate crimes has remained relatively small: homophobic (207), disability (76) and religion (27).

27% of people said they had been annoyed by republican murals, kerb paintings or flags in the last year. 32% of people said they had been annoyed by loyalist murals, kerb paintings or flags in the last year.

Our Cultural Expression

76% of people believe that the culture and traditions of the Catholic community adds to the richness and diversity of Northern Ireland society. A similar proportion (78%) believe this about Protestant culture and traditions, whilst a smaller proportion (59%) believe this about the culture and traditions of people from different Minority Ethnic groups.

Less than a third of adults felt like they have an influence when it comes to any of the local decisions made in their neighbourhood, and less than a quarter to the decisions made in Northern Ireland. For young people, these proportions were even lower.

The report is available on the OFMDFM Research Branch website

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