54.5964° N, 5.9301° W
BELFAST
Most Famous People Born in Belfast, United Kingdom
- Notable people
- 1,393
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1949
- Most distinctive
- Loyalist 272.1×
A divided city whose most distinctive profession in the entire dataset, at more than two hundred times the global rate, is loyalist — paired with republican at more than thirty, the statistical footprint of the Troubles. Belfast's other distinctive shelves are boxers, rugby players (grouped as 'player'), footballers, and cricketers at concentrations that outpace every other city on the island. Van Morrison, George Best, Kenneth Branagh, and C.S. Lewis all grew up within walking distance of the Lagan, and the 19th-century shipbuilding establishment that built the Titanic anchors the older half of the bench.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Belfast during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 179 notable births.
What Belfast Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Football is Belfast's biggest profession — 23% of all notables (321).
Belfast over-indexes on loyalist — 272.1× the global rate.
Belfast under-produces painter — only 0.5× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Belfast's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1850s Clear ×
Joseph Larmor
1857 - 1942
William Mulholland
1855 - 1935
John Lavery
1856 - 1941
James Douglas Ogilby
1853 - 1925
John M. C. Smith
1853 - 1923
Thomas Gisborne Gordon
1851 - 1935
James Ward (Irish artist)
1851 - 1924
Thomas Sinclair (politician)
1857 - 1940
Mary Andrews (geologist)
1854 - 1914
Henry Reichel
1856 - 1931
Jack Hastings
1858 - 1935
A. J. McCosh
1858 - 1908
Pascual Herraiz y Silo
1859 - 1903
James Buckle
1854 - 1884
Adam Brown Crosby
1856 - 1921
William Vint (cricketer)
1851 - 1897
James Hamilton (calciatore 1858)
1859 - 1932