General overview : Ireland

. Area: 84,412 km²
. Population: 3,917,203 (Census, 28 th April 2002)
. Capital: Dublin
. Principal urban areas : Dublin and hinterland, Cork
. Official language : English and Irish
. Regions: There are 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland. The term Ireland is used to refer to either the Republic of Ireland or to the whole island of Ireland (26 counties plus six counties of Northern Ireland ) depending on the context (political, sport, cultural etc). Traditionally there were four provinces (which group counties) into Leinster in the East, Munster in the South, Connaught in the West and Ulster (9 counties) in the North.
Note that the largest religious denominations retain their pre-partition all-Ireland organizational structures.

. Religious situation: : The free profession of religion is guaranteed to all citizens by the Irish Constitution. The religious composition of the state is made up of a very large Roman Catholic majority. According to the 2002 Census of Population the main religious groupings reported were Roman Catholic (88.4%), Church of Ireland/Anglican (2.9%) and no religion (3.5%). These figures represent a fall in the Roman Catholic share since the previous census.