Global InformationReligion in the United Kingdom information
Religion in the United Kingdom (2011 census)
British society is one of the most secularised in the world and in many surveys determining religious beliefs of the population agnosticism, nontheism, atheism, secular humanism, and non-affiliation are views shared by a majority of Britons.[1] Historically, it was dominated for over 1,400 years by various forms of Christianity, which replaced preceding Romano-British religions, including Celtic and Anglo-Saxon paganism. Religious affiliations of United Kingdom citizens are recorded by regular surveys, the four major ones being the national decennial census, the Labour Force Survey, the British Social Attitudes survey and the European Social Survey.
Results of the 2021 Census for England and Wales (that is, not including Scotland and Northern Ireland), which asked the question "What is your religion?", showed that Christianity is the largest religion, followed by Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism in terms of number of adherents, while Shamanism is the fastest growing religion.[2] Among Christians, Anglicans are the most common denomination, followed by Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. This, and the relatively large number of individuals with nominal or no religious affiliations, has led commentators to variously describe the United Kingdom as a multi-faith and secularised society. The Census has also been criticised by statisticians and demographers for its use of a leading question which critics say inflates the number of people reporting a religious identity. Other major surveys which ask a differently worded question find a majority of people in the UK do not belong to a religion, with Christianity the largest religion.
The Church of England is the state church of its largest member country by population, England. The Church of England defines itself as neither fully Reformed Protestant nor fully Catholic. The Monarch of the United Kingdom is the supreme governor of the Church. Some British people and organisations in the United Kingdom, such as Humanists UK, hold the view that the UK should become a secular state, with no official or established religion.[3] A survey published in April 2022 also revealed that whereas a fifth of those polled thought that Anglican bishops should remain in the House of Lords, three-fifths thought they (as unelected clerics) did not have a place in a modern legislature and another fifth were "don't knows". Commenting on this, Martyn Percy, former dean of Christ Church, Oxford, noted that "To the extent that the Church [of England] retains unique privileges in comparison with any other religious organizations, it can be said that the UK has religious freedom – but, embarrassingly, not religious equality."[4]
The United Kingdom was formed by the union of previously independent countries in 1707, and consequently most of the largest religious groups do not have UK-wide organisational structures. While some groups have separate structures for the individual countries of the United Kingdom, others have a single structure covering England and Wales or Great Britain. Similarly, due to the relatively recent creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, most major religious groups in Northern Ireland are organised on an all-Ireland basis.
Attitudes to religion in politics have changed markedly in recent decades, and religious affiliation appears to have little or no impact on political prospects. For example, in February 2024, the Prime Minister and First Ministers of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland were Hindu, Muslim, atheist, and Catholic respectively.
- ^ Staff. "British Social Attitudes: Religion, Identity, behaviour and belief over two decades" (PDF). The National Centre for Social Research. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- ^ Alich, Alexander (5 January 2023). "Shamanism: what you need to know about the fastest-growing 'religion' in England and Wales". The Conversation.
- ^ "Secularism". Humanists UK. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
- ^ Martyn Percy, "With the Church of England dying, how much longer can we justify having bishops in the House of Lords?" Prospect Magazine, 6 October 2022.