Christianity in the UK

Introduction

Research carried out by Brierley Consultancy in the UK, and published in Church Statistics gives an insight into the membership of churches, the number of places of worship and ministers. Data was published for 2005-2010, together with forecasts up to 2025.

The British Religion in Numbers website has additional data on Christianity in the UK.

Also included on this page are statistics from the UK Censuses, which were held in 2011 and 2021, and the British Social Attitudes Surveys (1983-2018).

Key Findings

Belief in God - 2016

A poll by You Gov in December 2016 produced the following results for persons asked if they believe in God or a higher spiritual power:

Some key findings from the Church Statistics¹ report are:

1. UK Church membership has declined from 10.6 million in 1930 to 5.5 Million in 2010, or as a percentage of the population; from about 30% to 11.2%.
   By 2013, this had declined further to 5.4 million (10.3%). If current trends continue, membership will fall to 8.4% of the population by 2025.²
   
   
2. In England, membership is forecast to decline to 2.53 million (4.3% of the population) by 2025.
   
   
3. Over the period 2005-2010, the major Christian denominations such as Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian all saw falls in membership. Orthodox, Pentecostal and other new churches (Evangelical and Charismatic) on the other hand, saw an increase in membership.
   
   
4. Church membership is declining in all four constituent countries of the UK, but in England the decline is relatively small, whereas the biggest decline appears to be in Scotland.

¹ The Church Statistics document gives an overview of the various definitions of 'membership' used by different Christian Denominations.

² Source: Church Statistics 2

Church Attendance in Britain

Brierley Consultancy have also published statistics for church attendance (as opposed to membership) for the period 1980-2015. Key findings are:

1. Church attendance has declined from 6,484,300 to 3,081,500 (equivalent to a decline from 11.8% to 5.0% of the population).
   
   
2. England has the lowest percentage of the population attending church in 2015 (4.7%), just below Wales at 4.8%. In Scotland, the equivalent figure is 8.9%

WIN/Gallup Survey (2014)/Pew Forum Surveys (2015-17)

A 2014 survey of approximately 64,000 people in 65 countries revealed the UK to be one of the world's most irreligious countries, with only 30% of those surveyed identifying as 'religious'. In contrast, 13% said they were convinced atheists and 53% of those surveyed said they were not religious.

The top two and bottom two countries together with the UK are shown below:

The 2015-17 surveys conducted by Pew Forum gave the following results:

• The United Kingdom is the 29th most religious out of 34 European countries.
• 11% in the United Kingdom are highly religious, based on an overall index.
• 10% say religion is very important in their lives.
• 20% say they attend religious services at least monthly.
• 6% say they pray daily.
• 12% say they believe in God with absolute certainty.

General Statistics

Religion in the UK - Census 2011

In percentage terms, the numbers of Christians fell by 12.4%.

For the four constituent countries of the UK, the Christian percentage was as follows:

• England: 59.4%
• Northern Ireland: 82.3%
• Scotland: 53.8%
• Wales: 57.6%

Irreligion in the UK - Census 2011

Percentage of persons who indicated they were not affiliated with any religion.

The 2011 census saw the numbers of irreligious persons rise from 7.7 million in 2001 to 14.1 million, a rise of 10.3% to 25.7%.

In one city in England (Norwich), the percentage of irreligious persons was as high as 42.5%.

The percentage of people who said they were Christian(46.2%) represents a drop of 13.1% since the last census in 2011. In contrast, the percentage identifying as having no religion has increased by 12%.

British Social Attitudes Surveys (1983 Onwards)

BSAS 2014

BSAS 1983-2018

SSAS 1999-2016