Timely and robust objective and subjective health measures by religious affiliation are also currently lacking. Improvements to the data during 2020 will focus on the linkage methodology and expanding the information available to include the following: This range of data will allow for a more complete longitudinal picture of educational experience, keeping the population recorded in Census 2011 as the base population to which information from other sources will be linked. Interviews are carried out face-to-face or through a self-completion online survey. The articles within this release do not coincide fully with the domains in the measurement framework, reflecting the statistics that it has been possible to present. You’ve accepted all cookies. However, although the 2021 Census topic consultation identified strong user need for data on religious affiliation, there was also evidence of demand for data covering religious beliefs and practices. Estimates for those who say that many of the people in their neighbourhood can be trusted who identify as Buddhist and Sikh have a coefficient of variation of 20% or more, and as such should be used with caution. As part of planned work following on from this, the Centre convened a group of representatives from across government to explore these data sources and establish the extent to which they could be used to describe the experiences of people of different religious groups in England and Wales. These findings are not intended to provide definitive answers but to add to the growing evidence base on equalities.”, Paola Serafino, Centre for Equalities and Inclusion, Office for National Statistics. Although freedom of religion is well established and practiced, some religious preference is given by the government. Figure 5 shows the percentage of adults in England and Wales who reported that they regularly attended religious services or meetings (once a month or more) in 2016 to 2018. The statistics presented are estimates and as with all estimates, there is a level of uncertainty associated with them. Agreed, having 14 billion people with no religion and 33 bilion christians living in the UK is hard to justify considering adding up the figures that makes about 56,000,000,000 people in the UK, which sugests we have about 8 times the total global population living in the UK. The Community Life Survey is a household self-completion online and paper survey of approximately 10,000 adults aged 16 years or over in England. They hope this information will be made available to users by summer 2020. While 1 in 20 (almost 2.7 million) people in England identified as Muslim (5.0%), only 1.5% of people in Wales (just under 46,000), identified in this way. You can change your cookie settings at any time. For England and Wales, the religious groups are: Only statistics that can be presented across most or all of these religious groups are included in this release. Local Government Candidates Survey Provides data on candidates, and community and county councillors elected at 2017 local government elections in Wales by broad religious group. In many cases, sample sizes for specific religious groups are small and confidence intervals are large and overlap with one another. You can change your cookie settings at any time. It has not been possible to present estimates for Wales separately from England because of sample sizes for some religious groups (see Related links for sources of information for Wales only for broad religious groups.). Data on the leading religious faiths of prisoners in England and Wales as of July 3, 2020, shows that there were 38.8 thousand Christian prisoners, the most of any religion. The method adjusts the APS estimates (which exclude most people living in communal establishments) so that they cover the entire population and are consistent with the mid-year population estimates. All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated, /peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/exploringreligioninenglandandwales/february2020, Figure 1: In 2011, the profile of religious affiliation in England and Wales was skewed, with the majority of the population identifying as Christian or having no religion, Figure 2: In 2011, those who identified as Muslim were the largest religious minority group in both England and Wales, Figure 3: A third of the population in England who identified as Muslim were under 16 years of age, Figure 4: Around half of those in Wales who identified as Christian or Jewish were aged 50 years or over, Figure 5: Those identifying as Sikh were most likely to have reported that they attended religious services or meetings regularly in England and Wales in 2016 to 2018, Things you need to know about this release, Attendance at religious services or meetings, Religion, education and work in England and Wales, Religion and participation in England and Wales, Equality and Human Rights Commission measurement framework (PDF, 15.66MB), The 2021 Census: Assessment of initial user requirements on content for England and Wales: Religion topic report (PDF, 780KB), human rights-based approach to data collection (PDF, 292KB), a method for providing more up-to-date estimates, Understanding Society, UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), Improving estimates of repeat victimisation derived from the Crime Survey for England and Wales. Our aim is to assess the quality of the existing evidence base and develop plans to build on its strengths and address its limitations. Because of the wide confidence intervals around some of these estimates, caution should be exercised when making comparisons across other religious groupings as apparent differences may not be statistically significant. The latest data from the 2011 census recorded that 48.4% of Londoners considered themselves to be Christian, 12.39% considered themselves Muslim, 5% Hindu, 1.82% Jewish, 1.5% Sikh, 1% Buddhist and 0.6% Other. However, in none of these areas is there a comprehensive picture of outcomes and experiences across all religious groups. In many cases, sample sizes for specific religious groups are small and confidence intervals are large and overlap with one another. There is a decline for the “Christian” group, counteracted by higher proportions for all the other groups, with the largest increases seen for the “Muslim”, “None plus Not stated” and “Other” groups. The next largest group after Catholic was "no religion". The 2018 BSA survey also found that 52% of people had no religion. The ONS’s Centre for Crime and Justice are considering the creation of a combined three-year dataset using the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) data based on a new methodology (for more information see Improving estimates of repeat victimisation derived from the Crime Survey for England and Wales). The United Kingdom, comprised of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, guarantees freedom of religion to its citizens and residents through 3 different regulations. This is attributed to the new generation that no longer views religion as a contentious issue between Ireland and Northern Ireland. '"Any other religion" encompasses those religions that are not otherwise listed separately. The requirements for future iterations of the dataset centre around the ability to identify different types of vulnerability and interaction between characteristics. 20 Jan 2020 The base year of the World Religion Database has been updated from mid-2015 to mid-2020. While this is an issue for all data collection, it needs to be explored carefully in relation to administrative data sources, gathered originally for non-research purposes, where other practices may apply. The fastest-growing religion since 2011 is Sikhism at 74 percent while Hinduism came second at 60 percent increase (Australian Bureau of Statics, 2011). United Kingdom - United Kingdom - Religion: The various Christian denominations in the United Kingdom have emerged from schisms that divided the church over the centuries. Where available, 95% confidence intervals have been shown. It is not possible to show estimates for England and Wales separately because of small sample sizes for the populations of interest. The GSS Harmonisation Team plan to conduct an implementation review of the religion principle to identify how it is being used across government. Where available, 95% confidence intervals have been shown. The Equality Act applies in England, Wales and Scotland and defines the following as protected characteristics: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. One of these laws is the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to free religious choice. We are increasingly turning to administrative data to address some of the limitations of our survey data sources. “This is part of a programme of work we are doing to explore inequalities in our society. Almost a third of the population of Wales (32%) and a quarter of the population of England (25%) did not identify with any religion. "Any other religion" encompasses those religions that are not otherwise listed separately. Since 2016 to 2017, the survey has included an ethnic boost aimed to increase the number of respondents from ethnic minority groups to ensure there is a representative sample. In line with the 2011 Census, questions in all surveys relating to religion are voluntary and respondents can opt not to reveal their religious affiliation. Also included on this page are statistics from the UK Census, which was held in 2011, and the British Social Attitudes Surveys (1983-2018). Population estimates for an additional 36 countries and territories are included in regional and global totals throughout the report. "Any other religion" encompasses those religions that are not otherwise listed separately. We have included examples of these in other pages of this release, but there is scope for this work to be extended to consider a wider range of outcomes and to take a wider range of characteristics into account. Despite this, adherents to religions other than Christianity and Islam (Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, Others) made up just 1.2% of the Welsh population combined. In 2017 the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey from NatCen found that the proportion of people across the UK who call themselves non-religious had risen above 50%. In England, a third of those who identified as Muslim were under 16 years old (33%) and a similar proportion were also in this age group in Wales (32%). A similar project is currently being explored by ADR Wales. The Centre is grateful to the analysts from a range of government departments and agencies, Welsh Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who have worked with us on this. The reasons for inequalities are complex, as today’s findings show, with a range of factors to be taken into account. These findings are not intended to provide definitive answers but to add to the growing evidence base on equalities.”, Paola Serafino, Centre for Equalities and Inclusion, Office for National Statistics. Therefore, we have been unable to provide estimates that are robust enough to compare all the different religious groups for England and Wales separately. Still, more than half of all Canadians (55%) in the Center’s 2018 survey said religion remains at least somewhat important in their lives, including about three-in-ten (29%) who said it is very important to them – higher than the share who said this in the UK, … Beliefs vary based on religion. Despite falling numbers, Christianity remained the largest religion in England and Wales, with 59.3% of the population (33.2 million people) identifying as Christian. The Centre for Equalities and Inclusion will continue to work with others to improve the data available to explore the outcomes of people with different religious affiliations. The ONS will publish the results of the feasibility analysis during 2020. The second largest religious group were Muslims with 4.8% of the population (2.7 million people). This work is being informed by a working group consisting of representatives from across government, academia and the third sector. Intersectionality refers to the differing experiences of people based on their status in relation to multiple characteristics, for example, a woman with a disability and a specific religious affiliation in a particular socio-economic group. ... with the number of people who identify as non-religious shrinking as a percentage of the world’s population, ... 30 September 2020. While the current research aims of this project are specific to improving estimates of health state prevalence, initiatives such as this offer the opportunity to investigate how gaps in the evidence on health by religious affiliation could be addressed. As a result, the focus of this work was to capture the full range of religious groups contained within the Government Statistical Service (GSS) harmonised principle on religion, not just those that have the largest numbers. The Data for Children proof of concept dataset links Census 2011 to an extract of the English National Pupil Database. However, despite these limitations, the data do provide the opportunity to undertake other analytical work. Over half of adults in England and Wales who identified as Sikh or Muslim reported that they consider political beliefs important to their sense of who they are (60% and 55%, respectively) in 2016 to 2018. Weekday services will account for half of these worshippers. It includes a youth questionnaire for those aged 10 to 15 years to complete (not included in this analysis), alongside the main adult survey, which is completed by respondents aged 16 years and over. Some of these rely on linking data sources to provide larger samples of data on relatively small populations, often linking census to administrative data. Population bulletin for 18 December 2020 published. The population of Scotland has been increasing every decade since 1970’s from that point. UK Muslim Population By City Demographics Religion Percentage England 2017. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve our services. Only statistically significant differences, as defined in this section, are commented on in this article. Main category: Religious demographics Size of Major Religious Groups, 2020 Religion Percent Christianity 31.11% Islam 24.9% Unaffiliated 15.58% Hinduism 15.16% Buddhism 6.62% Folk Religions 5.61% Other Religions 0.79% This is a list of religious populations by number of adherents and countries. Hide. All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated, /peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religionandparticipationinenglandandwales/february2020, Figure 1: A lower percentage of adults who identified as having no religion reported that political beliefs are important to their sense of who they are, Figure 2: Adults who identified as Jewish were more likely than most other religious groups to report having participated in a political activity, Figure 3: A higher proportion of adults who identified as Jewish, Buddhist, Christian or "any other religion’" volunteered in the last 12 months than those in other religious groups, Figure 4: 7 in 10 of those who identified as Muslim reported feeling a sense of belonging to their neighbourhood, Figure 5: Adults who identified as Jewish and Christian were most likely to agree that many people in their neighbourhood can be trusted, Participation in political and civic life, Religion, education and work in England and Wales, The 2021 Census: Assessment of initial user requirements on content for England and Wales: Religion topic report (PDF, 780KB), The Equality and Human Rights Commission Measurement Framework (PDF, 15.66MB), supporting tables to Is Britain Fairer 2018, supporting tables to is Britain Fairer 2018, Supporting Tables to is Britain Fairer 2018, Religion and participation in England and Wales. Those who identified as Christian were less likely than average to regularly attend a religious service or meeting (29%). The distribution of religions across the world. Between 2016 and 2018, over half of adults in England and Wales who identified as Sikh (60%) or Muslim (55%) expressed the view that their political beliefs were fairly or very important to their sense of who they are (Figure 1). For England and Wales, the religious groups are: In the following sections, we present cross-sectional descriptive statistics allowing us to identify differences between groups but not to explain them. These show the range within which we would expect the true value to lie for 95 out of every 100 samples drawn at random from the population. The advantage of the census is that estimates are available at a greater level of granularity than is achievable with household surveys, allowing statistics to be presented for England and Wales separately, disaggregated by a variety of characteristics. Caution should therefore be exercised when making other comparisons between religious groupings as observed differences may not be statistically significant. There was a modest reduction in the population of the country during the 1970’s and 1990’s. Exploring the data available on people of different religious identities, to assess its quality and develop plans to build on its strengths and address its limitations. Wide confidence intervals, often associated with small sample sizes or large sample variance, indicate a wider range of values within which we would expect the true value to lie. Religion Demographics of Northern Ireland. In the 2016 census, 78.3% of the population identified as Catholic which is 209,220 fewer than 6 years earlier in 2010 when the percentage stood at 88%. The religion that the largest proportion of the populations in both England and Wales identified with was Christianity (59% and 58% respectively). Around 4 in 10 of those who identified as Christian (43%) or Jewish (40%) were aged 50 years and over in England. This is, in part, because some of the main sources of data on educational attainment do not currently capture information on religious affiliation. The ongoing development of these linked data is being led by a partnership between the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and Admin Data Research (ADR) UK. Estimates presented in this release capture the concept of religious affiliation. In addition to making projections at the global level, this report projects religious change in 198 countries and territories with at least 100,000 people as of 2010, covering 99.9% of the world’s population. When convening the group to explore the data on religion, all the devolved administrations were invited to participate and the Welsh Government accepted this invitation. In England in 2016 to 2017, around 6 in 10 adults who identified as Jewish (62%) reported having undertaken one or more of the following political activities in the last year: In contrast, only around a quarter of those who identified as Hindu or Sikh had done so (27% and 26% respectively) (Figure 2). This may have an effect on the figures presented in relation to religious practice. The Government Statistical Service (GSS) harmonised principle on religion recommends that, where a single question is used in data collection, the concept that should be measured is religious affiliation. Because of the confidence intervals around some of these estimates, caution should be exercised when making comparisons across other religious groupings as apparent differences may not be statistically significant. Interestingly, although a high percentage of those who identified as Muslim reported a strong feeling of belonging to their neighbourhood, only around a quarter (26%) said that many people in their neighbourhood can be trusted. Although there is some overlap with the protected characteristics in the Equality Act, separate legislation applies in Northern Ireland. It is British and a Religion. We would like to use cookies to collect information about how you use ons.gov.uk. The numbers of Hindus and Buddhists had also doubled since 2001. Data was published for 2005-2010, together with forecasts up to 2025. However, if this is not the case, this would affect the results presented here. Contents 1 Adherents in 2020 1.1 Notes 2 By proportion 2.1 Christians 2.2 Muslims 2.3 … The most up-to-date official estimates of the population identifying with the different religions in England and Wales are available from the census, which was last carried out in 2011. Figure 2 shows the proportion of the populations of England and Wales who identified with minority religions (that is, not identifying as Christian or with no religion) in England and Wales in 2011. The audit identified approximately 60 sources of data from official surveys, other government-funded surveys and administrative data that include information on religion. Among the 50% of professing Christians in 2020, just 4% will be regular churchgoers (highest in Scotland and lowest in Wales) and 46% irregular churchgoers or non-attenders. The Government Statistical Service (GSS) harmonised principle on religion recommends that, where a single question is used in data collection, the concept that should be measured is religious affiliation. While around 6 in 10 adults who identified as Jewish (62%) reported having participated in political activities in England in 2016 to 2017, only around a quarter of those who identified as Sikh (26%) and Hindu (27%) reported this. Throughout this release, comparisons are only made between estimates for different religious groupings where these are statistically significant (see Uncertainty and quality in Section 6 for details of how statistical significance is assessed). For both countries, a much greater percentage of those who identified as Muslim were in the younger age groups compared with other religions, and a much greater percentage of those who identified as Jewish or Christian were in the older age groups (50 years and over) compared with other religions. When interpreting the results of this analysis, it should be remembered that the estimated percentages may be indicative (or otherwise) of a statistical association between participation levels and religious affiliation, but do not necessarily imply a causal relationship between the two. The outcome of this review will inform future work in this area, which may include additional questions to measure concepts such as belief and practice. The statistics presented are estimates and as with all estimates, there is a level of uncertainty associated with them. National Survey for Wales Provides data on a range of measures for Wales by broad religious group, including whether people have contacted a councillor in the last year, whether people feel able to influence decisions affecting their local area, their attendance at or participation in arts events in the last year, sports participation and feelings of belonging to their local area. However, if this assumption does not hold, this could affect the results presented. The number of people who do not identify with any religion is also set to rise to 10% of the population, as secularism becomes a norm in society. Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student record information from the All Education Dataset for England (AEDE), Individualised Learner Record (ILR) records from AEDE, Higher education intentions information from Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), Children in Need data from Department for Education (DfE), type of crime experienced by victims of different religions (for example, violence with injury, violence without injury, robbery and theft offences, and fraud), experience of types of domestic abuse experienced by victims of different religions, religiously-motivated hate crime experienced by different religious groups, all hate crime strands experienced by each religious group, potentially exploring the relationship between crime, religious belief and other characteristics such as age, ethnicity and where a person lives. This method has the limitation that some estimates with overlapping confidence intervals may be significantly different but will not be identified as such (that is, the false-negative rate will be inflated). There are aspects to consider in the workplace and would be significant in recording diversity. We would like to use cookies to collect information about how you use ons.gov.uk. Throughout this release, we have assumed that the distribution of outcomes of non-respondents in the different religious groups is similar to that of those who did respond. Even where data are available, they are often not sufficiently detailed to allow for detailed geographical or intersectional analysis. This graphic shows the forecasted number of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, religiously unaffiliated people, believers in folk religions and in other religions in France in 2020. This captures how respondents connect or identify with a religion, regardless of whether they actively practise it (see The 2021 Census: Assessment of initial user requirements on content for England and Wales: Religion topic report (PDF, 780KB) for more information about concepts in relation to religion).