Christians now a minority in England and Wales

LONDON, United Kingdom: Fewer than half of people in England and Wales identify as Christian, according to census data released on Tuesday, underlining a landmark shift towards secularism in multicultural Britain.

The findings from the 10-yearly census, carried out in 2021, came just over a month after Rishi Sunak became Britain´s first Hindu prime minister. They showed rapid growth among the Muslim population. However, “no religion” was the second most common response after “Christian”, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said it was no “great surprise” that the Christian proportion was declining over time. But he said that, facing a cost-of-living crisis and war in Europe, people still needed spiritual sustenance.

“We will be there for them, in many cases, providing food and warmth. And at Christmas, millions of people will still come to our services,” said the Anglican Church´s second-ranking cleric. But the group Humanists UK, which campaigns for the rights of non-religious people, said the government should take on board policy implications.

Those included government backing for religious schools and for the established Church of England, its chief executive Andrew Copson said. “Iran is the only other state in the world that has clerics voting in its legislature. And no other country in the world requires compulsory Christian worship in (non-religious) schools as standard,” he said.

“This census result should be a wake-up call which prompts fresh reconsiderations of the role of religion in society.” Some 27.5 million people, or 46.2 percent in England and Wales, described themselves as Christian, down 13.1 percentage points from 2011.

“No religion” rose by 12 points to 37.2 percent or 22.2 million, while Muslims stood at 3.9 million or 6.5 percent of the population, up from 4.9 percent before. The next most common responses were Hindu (1.0 million) and Sikh (524,000), while Buddhists overtook Jewish people (273,000 and 271,000 respectively).