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December 12, 2012
New Census Reignites Debate over British Christianity's Future
Past decade sees 4 million fewer Christians, 6 million more agnostics.
According to fresh data from the United Kingdom's once-a-decade census, the number of residents of England and Wales identifying as Christians dropped 13 percent since 2001. However, Christians still make up 59 percent of the total population.
But with nearly. 14.1 million people—a quarter of the population and 6.4 million more people than before—professing no religion at all, some analyses suggest that Christians could fall below majority status to a plurality by 2018.
But the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has remarked that Christianity is not "fading away" anytime soon, citing "a dramatic rise in the number of people visiting cathedrals, for prayer or reflection as much as the architecture."
Arun Arora, director of communications for the Archbishop's Council, also says the census data could stem from more "cultural Christians" willing to identify themselves as religiously unaffiliated.
The census also indicates that the number of Muslims has nearly doubled, jumping from 1.5 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2011.
CT has previously reported on the myth of Christianity's demise in the U.K., as well as on a recent Pew Forum report that showed a dramatic increase in religiously unaffiliated Americans.
(Editor's note: This article has been updated for clarity to reflect that the census data refers only to the populations of England and Wales.)
Comments
I think you are a little mixed up on a couple of points. Here is a quote from The Guardian newspaper from which I think you have drawn your facts:
"Christianity remains the largest religion in England and Wales, with 33.2m people, or 59% of the population, saying they follow the faith. But 14.1m people, around a quarter of the population and an increase of 6.4 million over the decade, said they had no faith at all."
Note the reference to England and Wales. But you give the impression the statistics are for the whole United Kingdom. England and Wales do not make up the whole of the UK.
Also, you miss out the reference to 14.1m people, a quarter of the population, making it seem in your report that 6.1m = a quarter of the population.
There will be equally disturbing statistics for Scotland, and perhaps also for Northern Ireland (though its religious trends are often different to the rest of the UK).
Posted By: Alistair Brown | December 12, 2012 12:29 PM
Should we be surprised at the attitude of people in the UK towards religion? Theirs is a dull middle ages state dominated religion. Their Church of England ministers are beholden to the government for financial survival and nobody wants to hear their dry-as-dust sermons. Their historic churches have been converted to tourist attractions. Where is Charles H. Spurgeon when you need him?
Posted By: Van | December 12, 2012 12:49 PM
Van- you don't know what you are talking about!
Church of England vicars don't get paid by the government, the churches don't get paid for by the state. The Church of England gave us the Alpha course, Matt Redman & Tim Hughes.
The new Archbishop of Canterbury is an ex Holy Trinity Brompton man (huge evangelical church in London where Alpha started), another (charasmatic evangelical) bishop who was in the running is the brother in law of the Pastors of Trent Vineyard (one of the largest churches in the UK outside of London), another has son who is the director of Soul Survivor which attractes 30,000 young people a summer.
The Church of England gets better viewing figures for it's services than any televangelist could get- Royal wedding.
The churches that are "tourist attractions" actually have multiple services going on. Daily, not weekely.
What's happening is that as older people are dying off those who aren't really saved don't come to church because it's the thing to do anymore. That's a good thing. The Evangelical Church of England churches are growing and the liberal churches are shrinking and dying or being turned round by the new crop of vicars of whom there are for the first time in the Church of England now more evangelicals than liberal comming through.
We're doing fine, but thanks for your reasoned and compassionate responce anyway!
Posted By: steve | December 12, 2012 5:24 PM
Thanks, Alistair. We've updated the post to clarify that the particular census results mentioned here do refer only to England and Wales. We also clarified that 14.1 million people profess no religion; that's a quarter of the population and 6.4 million more people than before.
Posted By: CT Editor | December 13, 2012 9:34 AM
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