Religion in the United Kingdom
Diversity, Trends and Decline
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Published byVexen Crabtree
(2012).
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Published by With over 170 distinct religions counted, the religious make-up of the UK is diverse, complex and multicultural. The 2011 Census shows that minority and alternative religions are steadily growing, as is Islam" JQPU_Content="Strict monotheism taught by Muhammad, the world's 2nd largest religion
About Islam" class="www.humanreligions.info/islam.html">Islam. Less than half of the British people believe in a God and from 2009 the annual British Social Attitudes results has revealed that over 50% of us say we're not religious1 and a 2014 YouGov poll saw 77% of the British public say they're not very, or not at all, religious2. Comprehensive professional research in 2006 by Tearfund found that two thirds (66% - 32.2 million people) in the UK have no connection with any religion or church3.
However people continue to put down what they think is their "official" religion on official forms. As a result of this Census Effect in the 2011 National Census, 59.3% of us put their religion down as "Christianity" JQPU_Content="Belief that a single creator god had a son, Jesus Christ, born to a human mother, and that Jesus' crucifixion by the Romans brings salvation
About Christianity" class="www.humanreligions.info/christianity.html">Christian"4. Half of those who say they have no religion to pollsters still put one down on the 2011 Census. Even despite this, Christianity" JQPU_Content="Belief that a single creator god had a son, Jesus Christ, born to a human mother, and that Jesus' crucifixion by the Romans brings salvation
About Christianity" class="www.humanreligions.info/christianity.html">Christian numbers are substantially down from the 2001 figure of 72%. Religion in Britain has suffered an immense general decline since the 1950s. Between 1979 and 2005, half of all Christianity" JQPU_Content="Belief that a single creator god had a son, Jesus Christ, born to a human mother, and that Jesus' crucifixion by the Romans brings salvation
About Christianity" class="www.humanreligions.info/christianity.html">Christians stopped going to church on a Sunday. Four in five britons want religion to be private, not public, and have no place in politics5. All indicators show a continued secularisation of British society in line with other European countries such as France.
| 2011 Census4 | Adherents | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christianity" JQPU_Content="Belief that a single creator god had a son, Jesus Christ, born to a human mother, and that Jesus' crucifixion by the Romans brings salvation About Christianity" class="www.humanreligions.info/christianity.html">Christianity | 33 200 000 | 59.3% | |
| No Religion" JQPU_Content="The rise secularisation has seen public and private religion decline throughout the developed world About secularisation" class="www.humanreligions.info/secularisation.html">No Religion | 14 100 000 | 25.1% | |
| Islam" JQPU_Content="Strict monotheism taught by Muhammad, the world's 2nd largest religion About Islam" class="www.humanreligions.info/islam.html">Islam | 2 700 000 | 4.8% | |
| Hinduism" JQPU_Content="Cultural religion of India which was historically decentralized and disparate and not a single belief system. Western influence made it into a single religion, an identity which Hindus now accept. About Hinduism" class="www.humanreligions.info/hinduism.html">Hinduism | 817 000 | 1.5% | |
| Sikhism | 423 000 | 0.8% | |
| Judaism" JQPU_Content="Organized Judaism emerged from Babylonian writings. Belief that God has a special contract with a Hebrew tribe, involving many specific rules of behaviour About Judaism" class="www.humanreligions.info/judaism.html">Judaism | 263 000 | 0.5% | |
| Buddhism" JQPU_Content="The belief that meditation and good living can break the cycle of reincarnation and result in enlightenment About Buddhism" class="www.humanreligions.info/buddhism.html">Buddhism | 248 000 | 0.4% | |
| Jedi Knights | 176 632 | 0.3% | |
| Paganism" JQPU_Content="Part of the neo-pagan range of religions About Paganism" class="www.humanreligions.info/paganism.html">Paganism | 57 000 | ||
| Spiritualism | 39 000 | ||
| Agnosticism | 32 382 | ||
| Jain | 20 000 | ||
| Humanism" JQPU_Content="An organized form of atheism where moral and ethical goodness is emphasized About Humanism" class="www.humanreligions.info/humanism.html">Humanism | 15 067 | ||
| Wicca" JQPU_Content="Neo-pagan organisation based around reconstructed elements of folklore About Wicca" class="www.humanreligions.info/wicca.html">Wicca | 11 766 | ||
| Ravidassia | 11 058 | ||
| Rastafarian | 7 906 | ||
| Heavy Metal | 6 242 | ||
| Bahá'í Faith | 5 021 | ||
| Druidism | 4 189 | ||
| Taoism | 4 144 | ||
| Zoroastrianism | 4 105 | ||
| Scientology | 2 418 | ||
| Pantheism | 2 216 | ||
| Heathenism" JQPU_Content="Modern uptake of Nordic religion. Part of the neo-pagan range of religions About Heathenism" class="www.humanreligions.info/paganism.html#Heathens">Heathenism | 1 958 | ||
| Satanism" JQPU_Content="An atheist religion that uses dark and evil symbology for self-development and anti-religious purposes - Satan itself is not a real being, just a symbol. About Satanism" class="www.humanreligions.info/satanism.html">Satanism | 1 893 | ||
| ... view full list and compare to the 2001 Census | |||
“This secular majority presents a major challenge to churches. Most of them - 29.3 million - are unreceptive and closed to attending church; churchgoing is simply not on their agenda.”
Tearfund (2007) on 2006 research3
The primary social research tool in Britain is the British Social Attitudes Survey, an annual mini-census. In 2009 'No religion' was stated by 50.7% of the UK population1. Comprehensive professional research in 2006 by Tearfund found that two thirds (66% - 32.2 million people) in the UK have no connection with any religion or church3, a figure which meshes perfectly with another poll in the same year that saw 63% say they are not religious 6. A decade ago, headcounts revealed that just over 6% of the population go to church on a Sunday7 (for every 6 who do, 94 do not). In 2003 August, only 18% of the British public said they were a practicing member of an organized religion, 25% they were members of a world religion8. According to these results, one fifth of self-declared members would also not describe themselves as actually practicing that religion.
17% of the population responded that religion was one of the most significant factors in their lives. A persons' own experience, parents, education and friends come first for nearly everyone8. (2003)
Those who do profess religion in the UK are largely inactive. A 2007 poll commissioned by the British Library found that 50% of religious folk "do not practice religion very much, if at all"9, with Christians being the most inactive. A 2014 poll found similar results, with 50% of British Judaism" JQPU_Content="Organized Judaism emerged from Babylonian writings. Belief that God has a special contract with a Hebrew tribe, involving many specific rules of behaviour
About Judaism" class="www.humanreligions.info/judaism.html">Jews saying that they are not at all religious10. Muslims were most religious, with only 7% saying they're not10.
A large 2006 poll of year 9 and 10 teenagers in Cornwall found that only 19% said that they 'have a religious faith'7. If these teenagers reflect the future, British religiosity is going to continue to drop.
One single fact can be found in all of the statistics: Britons are mostly non-religious and are increasingly both innocent and ignorant of religion.
The cultural attachment to Christianity in general lives on and Monica Furlong in her year 2000 comprehensive review of the state of English religion summarizes the English in the same way as Grace Davies who wrote "Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without Belonging": by saying the English "believe without belonging" to Christianity" JQPU_Content="Belief that a single creator god had a son, Jesus Christ, born to a human mother, and that Jesus' crucifixion by the Romans brings salvation
About Christianity" class="www.humanreligions.info/christianity.html">Christianity. That is, many profess belief but do not take part in organized religion. Subsequent scholars (and we will see much supporting evidence below) have doubted whether we believe at all; one said we "don't believe, and don't belong".
“In the twenty years between 1980 and 2000 the Church of England suffered a 27 per cent decline in church membership. The Roman Catholic Church suffered a similar decline in the same period in mass attendance. Methodists, Baptists and others suffered decline too, though in all the churches, it must be said, there have been significant successes in certain churches and particular enterprises. The only institutional church which has continued to grow has been the Orthodox Church - Greek and Russian - where demand for churches exceeds supply, mainly because of immigration from Orthodox countries.
There is a rather touching footnote to all this, which is that people questioned about how much they go to church, give figures which, if true, would add up to twice those given by the churches.”
"The C of E: The State It's In" by Monica Furlong (2000) [Book Review]11
| 1964 | 1970 | 1983 | 1992 | 2005 | |
| Belong to a religion and attend services | 74% | 71% | 55% | 37% | 31% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Does not belong | 3% | 5% | 26% | 31% | 38% |
Source: British Social Attitudes (2006/7)12 | |||||
Those who 'do not belong' have first shed the practical and theoretical underpinnings of their religion, before finally overcoming social pressure to "state your religion". There are many who are not at the later stages of this secularisation process, so they still say they 'belong', although they are in the process of forgetting & discarding the physical and mental aspects of what they say they belong to.
So why do so many people say they are Christian? Sociologists know that if they count heads and ask about beliefs, more people say they belong to a religion, and say they have the beliefs of a particular religion, than actually do. People over-state their own religiosity; that's why statistics from polls will often give higher percentages of 'believers' than will head-counting and deeper investigations. To read about this, click here: "Institutionalized Religions Have Their Numbers Inflated by National Polls" by Vexen Crabtree (2009).
Year 2000 snapshots:
In 2000, 60 per cent of the population claimed to belong to a specific religion with 55 per cent being Christian. However, half of all adults aged 18 and over who belonged to a religion have never attended a religious service.13
48% of people in the UK claim to belong to a religion, compared with 86% of people in the US and 92% of Italians. From BBC's report "UK is 'losing' its religion" (2000)14.
Church attendance in 1999 was 7.5% on an average Sunday, down from 10% in 1989 and 12% in 1979.
The historical dominance of Christianity power in England led to the full institutionalizing of Christianity. Christianity is the 'established religion' of the UK. Although much of this is reversed - public offices are no longer restricted to members of Catholic or Protestant denominations, some oddities do still remain. For example "the Church of England is required by law to display a complete, accessible Bible in all its places of worship"16. There is no similar law placing requirements on Mosques or Synagogues. Such an outdated law is nowadays considered improper: the state has no right to interfere in such a way. Most of the time the legal entanglement of Church and State involve the former having disproportionate or improper influence on the latter. Bishops still sit in the House of Lords (the UK's second chamber of government) - "Britain is the only country left in the democratic world that allows clerics to sit in its legislature as of right"17. Although there is a long-lasting "disestablishment" movement in the UK, the public do not know enough about religion to be roused to either oppose or support it. The government tends not to devote much time to actively dismantling such apparatus because even though it is an democratic embarrassment, the public themselves don't often notice.
In a 2012 poll conducted by YouGov and BSAS, 81% of the British stated that religion is a private matter, and should be separate from politics (only 6% thought otherwise), and 71% said that religious leaders should not influence the government18. Only 7% think that Britain would be a better place if more religious leaders held public office18. Battles between Christian powers and democratic propriety have a long history. These links are to another page:
Almost all minority religions that appeared in 2001 and 2011 Census results have grown over the 10 years. Christianity" JQPU_Content="Belief that a single creator god had a son, Jesus Christ, born to a human mother, and that Jesus' crucifixion by the Romans brings salvation
About Christianity" class="www.humanreligions.info/christianity.html">Christianity has plummeted, although there is almost universal agreement amongst sociologists that the decline is amongst who have for a long time have not held Christian beliefs - or any other religious beliefs. The decline is caused by people ceasing to put "Christian" because they think it is the right answer; and putting, correctly "no religion" instead.