{"id":1427,"date":"2022-11-29T21:13:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T21:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2022-12-02T08:56:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T08:56:30","slug":"changing-religion-in-the-2021-census","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/religious-studies\/?p=1427","title":{"rendered":"Changing Religion in the 2021 Census"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s now official \u2013 the United Kingdom is no longer a Christian majority country. This is the headline from the 2021 census data<\/a> on religion in England and Wales (not Scotland, more on that later), although the more conservative papers may go for \u201cChristianity still the largest religion in Britain\u201d. Which is also true, but it is the first headline that will garner the most attention because the idea of secularisation<\/em> \u2013 basically the idea that religion is in decline in modernity \u2013 is so entrenched in how we think about religion in the modern world.<\/p>\n

But for those of us who have been geeking out about this data since the question was first asked in the 2001 census, the immediate takeaway is how little there was here that was a surprise. Almost everything in the 2021 census was predictable from comparison of the 2001 and 2011 censuses.<\/p>\n

72% of the population of England and Wales (37.3 million) identified as Christian in the 2001 census. This fell 13% in the next decade, when 59% (33.2 million) ticked that box. In the last decade, it fell by exactly the same amount – 13%, to 46.2% (27.5 million people). So while it is less than half for the first time, the trajectory was entirely predictable, and importantly, steady. It all suggests that \u201cno religion\u201d will overtake Christianity to become the largest religious identification by the next census.<\/p>\n

It is important to note that this question is focused on religion as identity. There is no question about what one does, or indeed what one believes. None of these three things is \u201creally\u201d religion any more than any of the others, but it certainly complicates things. A person might identify as Christian who doesn\u2019t believe in God or go to church, and equally someone with \u201cno religion\u201d might pray or regard themselves as spiritual. The video below discusses why this is important for interpreting census data.<\/p>\n