Catholic church sees 2011 decline

The 2011 Population and Housing Census Demographic Report shows that Roman Catholicism was again the largest religious denomination with 285,671 followers, but this represents a decline from a membership of 289,711 in 2000, a decrease of 1.4 per cent. Other religious denominations that experienced decreases in their membership in 2011 were Hinduism, Anglican, Presbyterian/Congregational and Methodist.

The number of persons claiming affiliation to Pentecostal/Evangelical/Full Gospel more than doubled from 76,327 in 2000 to 159,033 in 2011, an increase of 108.4 per cent. The category “none” rose by 33.5 per cent and the “non stated” constituted quite a large number of persons.

38.7% of population unqualified
About 29.8 per cent of the population had attained primary level education. Proportions amounting to 43.5 per cent had attained secondary and post-secondary levels, with 6.2 per cent attaining tertiary non-university education and 8.4 per cent university level education. Males outnumber females up to the primary and secondary levels, but at the tertiary levels, females outnumber males.

Roughly 38.7 per cent of the population had no qualification. Included in this proportion are some persons who may not have written examinations to receive qualifications. Some 4.3 per cent reported school leaving as the highest educational qualification, while 25.1 per cent achieved GCE O Level/CXC General Level or A levels as their highest educational qualification.

Another 9.3 per cent were granted diplomas, five per cent achieved either a bachelor’s or master’s degree and 0.2 per cent matriculated to the doctoral level.

Women head 33% of households
The report also showed that even though twice as many household heads were men, the proportion of households headed by females was substantial, at 33 per cent. The prevalence of male-headed and female-headed households for each municipality.

In the city of Port-of-Spain, San Juan/Laventille, the city of San Fernando and in Diego Martin, there was a greater prevalence of female-headed households than in the other municipalities, notably Penal/Debe, Mayaro/Rio Claro and Couva/ Tabaquite/Talparo, where male-headed households tended to be markedly more predominant.

In T&T, two out of every three households are headed by a male. In all the age groups from 20 to 24 years to 55 to 59 years, the ratio of male-headed to female-headed households was above the national average.

Noteworthy is the case of the 80 years or older group, which is the only instance of female-headed households outnumbering male-headed households. Most of the males heading households were between the ages of 45 to 49 years while the majority of female heads were 50 to 54 years.