evidence: Northern Ireland [edit]Under the Identity and Language Act of 2022, Irish is recognised as an official language in Northern Ireland.[130][131] 6,000 people (0.3%) in Northern Ireland claim to use Irish as their main home language according to the 2021 UK Census with 71,900 people being able to speak Irish (circa 4% of population) and 228,600 people overall in the state (12.4%) having some knowledge of the language. It is the second most spoken language in Northern Ireland.[132]