Less than half population Christian
THE proportion of people in England and Wales identifying as Christian has fallen below 50% for the first time, according to census data.
Some 46.2% of the population described themselves as Christian on the day of the 2021 census, down from 59.3% a decade earlier, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. This is the first time the proportion has dropped below half.
The percentage of people saying they had no religion jumped from around a quarter in 2011 (25.2%) to over a third in 2021 (37.2%).
There were increases in the proportion of people describing themselves as Muslim and
Hindu. London remains the most religiously diverse region of England, with just over a quarter (25.3%) of people on the day of the 2021 census reporting a religion other than Christian. South-west England is the least religiously diverse region, with 3.2% selecting a religion other than Christian. The religion question was voluntary on the 2021 census but was answered by 94.0% of the population of England and Wales, up from 92.9% in 2011, the ONS added.
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said the country had ‘left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian’.