The latest census data from the Office for National Statistics reveals that less than half of British people now identify as Christian. Only 46.2 per cent (27.5 million) claimed to be Christian in the 2021 survey, a decrease of 13.1 percentage points from 2011. This has led some church leaders to react with surprise and disappointment, and more levelheaded commentators to wonder why the decline isn’t greater.
It’s interesting that a census report in Canada last month showed something extremely similar, and the pattern is replicated throughout most of Europe and North America. Where there is religious expansion it’s often in the growing Hindu and Muslim communities, and humanism and atheism – or sometimes sheer indifference – are flourishing.
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