This is a list of local government districts in Northern Ireland by national identity.

In 2011 the decennial UK Census asked respondents for the first time "How would you describe your national identity?” In Northern Ireland respondents were given a list of options (including British, Irish, and Northern Irish) from which they could choose as many as they wanted. The question was repeated in the 2021 census.

In 2011 British identity outnumbered Irish identity in twenty of the 26 old districts. In 2021 in five of these districts (Belfast, Moyle, Down, Fermanagh, and Cookstown) Irish identity now outnumbers British identity. In two more districts, Armagh and Limavady, British identity outnumbers Irish by a small amount, 2.9% and 0.1% respectively, down from 12% and 10.2% respectively.

Similarly, in the new districts, British identity outnumbered Irish identity in seven of the 11 districts. In 2021 Irish identity outnumbers British identity in Belfast, so British now outnumbers Irish in six of the 11 districts.

British identity was in a majority in ten districts (down from 11 in 2011) whereas in 2021 Irish national identity was numerically in a majority in two districts, Derry and Newry, where 61.3% and 60.5% respectively consider themselves as having an Irish national identity. This was an increase of 6.3% and 7.5% respectively over the number from 2011.

British identity was a majority in six of the new districts in 2011, and down to five in 2021. Irish was in the majority in only Derry and Strabane in 2011, and was in the majority Derry and Strabane and Newry, Mourne and Down in 2021.

The Local Government Districts listed below are no longer the official local administrative districts. However the 2021 census provides data relating to the older districts so they can be compared.

The main changes between the 2011 and 2021 censuses can be summarized as:

• British outnumbered Irish in 20 out of the 26 old districts in 2011. In 2021 British outnumbered Irish in 15 old districts. In two of the old districts, the difference was less than 3%: Armagh 2.9% and Limavady 0.1%. Belfast switched from predominantly British to predominantly Irish
• British outnumbered Irish in seven of the 11 new districts in 2011, and six of the new districts in 2021.
• Every district, old and new, had a drop in those identifying as British
• Every district, old and new had an increase in those identifying as Irish
• Relative change from British to Irish was between 6.1% in Ards, and 14.4% in Down in the old districts
• Relative change from British to Irish was between 7.4% in Ards and North Down and 14.2% in Lisburn and Castlereagh in the new districts.
• The largest increases in Irish relative to British, of over 13%, was concentrated in the districts close to and to the south of Belfast
• In the 2011 old districts more Catholics identified as British than Irish in Ards, North Down, Larne, and Carrickfergus. In 2021, only in the Carrickfergus district were slightly more Catholics identifying as British than Irish (32% vs 31.2%)

Irish national identity was numerically in a majority in two districts, Derry and Newry, where 55.03% and 52.09% respectively consider themselves as having an Irish national identity.^[10] Whilst 45.14% of the population of Northern Ireland said that they were either Catholic or that they had been raised Catholic, only 28.35% described their nationality as Irish. In the Larne Borough Council area the percentage of Catholics was 24.87% and the figure for Irish nationality was 10.1%, meaning that no more (and almost certainly less) than 32.40% of Catholics described themselves as having an Irish nationality.^[11]

British nationality was numerically in a majority in eleven districts. The fact that the overall number of people who described their nationality as British (48.41%) is very similar to the proportion who said that they were from a Protestant community background (48.36%) is not tantamount to proving that all Protestants see themselves primarily as British. In nine of Northern Ireland's 26 council areas, British nationality was a higher proportion than the number of Protestants. For example, in the Down District Council the figure for British nationality (40.21%) is 123.38% of the figure for Protestants (32.08%), meaning that, even if every single Protestant were to have chosen a British nationality, a substantial amount of those choosing a British nationality were evidently not Protestant.

Northern Irish nationality was geographically evenly spread throughout the region. There was no strong correlation between Northern Irish nationality at local government level and religion or community background. For instance the two highest areas of Northern Irish national identity were Down (34.12%) and North Down (32.95%); the former being mostly Catholic (62.51%) and the latter being mostly Protestant (73.23%).

There was a British national identity majority or plurality over Irish nationality in 20 of the 26 council areas, and there was an Irish national identity majority or plurality over British national identity in 6 of the 26 council areas.

Following the reform of local government in Northern Ireland the twenty-six districts created in 1973 were replaced with eleven "super districts". The first election using these districts took place on 22 May 2014, electing councillors who sat in shadow form until 1 April 2015. The breakdown of national identity within these new boundaries at the time of the 2011 census was as follows.^[13][a]

• Demographics of Northern Ireland
• Local government in Northern Ireland
• List of districts in Northern Ireland by religion or religion brought up in
• Census in the United Kingdom
• British people
• Irish people
• Northern Irish people
• Ulster Scots people

• Northern Ireland Census