Census: Christians a minority in England; non-religious grow

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Census: Christians a minority in England; non-religious grow

By JILL LAWLESS
November 29, 2022

LONDON (AP) — Fewer than half the people in England and Wales consider themselves Christian, according to the most recent census — the first time a minority of the population has followed the country’s official religion.

Britain has become less religious — and less white — in the decade since the last census, figures from the 2021 census released Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics revealed.

Some 46.2% of the population of England and Wales described themselves as Christian on the day of the 2021 census, down from 59.3% a decade earlier. The Muslim population grew from 4.9% to 6.5% of the total, while 1.7% identified as Hindu, up from 1.5%.

More than 1 in 3 people — 37% — said they had no religion, up from 25% in 2011.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/europe-religion-england-wales-secularism-93b894a1e7e26ddaf244d35921a172e0

[geardaddy]

1. They really need to stop referring to England

as England and Wales. Wales is a different nation entirely. I know there is a legal reason they do, but it's infuriating.
Then later in the article they refer to Britain being less religious as a whole, but don't talk about the stats in Scotland.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. It's because these statistics cover England and Wales, but not Scotland (or NI)

It's not 'legal', it's where this census release covers (other articles have, for instance, pointed out the local authorities with the highest "no religion" numbers are in south Wales). AP might be technically incorrect to say this is about "Britain", but it does then mention Scotland and NI's figures aren't in it, and the changes in religion couldn't actually be reversed by Scottish figures, because they're that large.