What percentage of the UK is religious?

Answer 1

POPULATION 59,778,002

ANGLICAN (INCLUDING THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND) 39.4 percent

ROMAN CATHOLIC 12.5 percent

PRESBYTERIAN (INCLUDING THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND) 5.5 percent

OTHER CHRISTIAN 8.2 percent

MUSLIM 2.7 percent

HINDU 1.0 percent

SIKH 0.6 percent

JEWISH 0.5 percent

BUDDHIST 0.3 percent

OTHER 0.3 percent

NO RELIGION 29.0 percent

However according to a" poll conducted by YouGov in March 2011 on behalf of the BHA, when asked the census question 'What is your religion?', 61% of people in England and Wales ticked a religious box (53.48% Christian and 7.22% other) while 39% ticked 'No religion'.

When the same sample was asked the follow-up question 'Are you religious?', only 29% of the same people said 'Yes' while 65% said 'No', meaning over half of those whom the census would count as having a religion said they were not religious. "

because of this it can be hard to get an exact figure on it as often people might consider themselves to culturally belong to one region without actually being religious!

Answer 2

2001 Census

In the 2001 Census 71.6% of respondents said that Christianity was their religion, however a Tearfund survey showed only one in ten Britons actually attend church weekly. 9.1 million (15% of the UK population) claimed no religion, with a further 4.3 million (7% of the UK population) not stating a religious preference. Between 2004 and 2008, the Office for National Statistics reported that the number of Christians in Great Britain (rather than the UK as a whole) fell by more than 2 million.

The 2001 census showed that 42 079 000 identified themselves as Christians. This equates to 71.6 percent of the population. 'Operation World' 2001 put the percentage at 67.6 percent. The British Social Attitudes poll of more than 3,000 people showed 48% said they belonged to a religion, but of course not all those who have a religious affiliation would identify as Christians. Allowing for Muslims, Jews, Hindus and followers of other faiths, somewhat less than 50% of British people would regard themselves as Christians. The population of the United Kingdom is just over 60 million, so on these figures, rather less than 30 million people in Britain are Christians. This is a rather lower number than the official census statistics show, and may reflect the wording of the question asked in either case, as well as how comfortable people are, in either case, with stating that they are not Christians. In a recent poll around 78-83% of Britons professed a belief in God. This equates to aroun 48 million people. However only a portion of these are practising Christians who attend worship regularly.

2011 Census

In the 2011 YouGov@Cambridge census of British life and attitudes, 55 per cent of the adult population claimed to be Christians, including 38 per cent of the age group 18-34 and 70 percent of those over 55. This is a dramatic decline in faith, which appears to be continuing, with predictions that Britain will soon cease to be a recognisably Christian country. Only 34 per cent said they believed in a personal god or gods, which is somewhat at variance with the answer on religious affiliation.

Some claimed that the wording of the question on religion was such as to encourage some to believe that they had to nominate a religion, even if in fact they had none.

Answer 3

71.6% of the UK's population is Christian.