Less than half call themselves Christian

LESS than half the population of Rochdale describe themselves as Christian, according to the latest Census data.

In Rochdale just 46.9% of people identified as Christian, while Wigan had the highest proportion in Greater Manchester at 62.8% the figures reveal.

Alkrington was the area of the borough with the highest proportion of Christians, at 67.8%.

Nationally, the proportion of people in England and Wales identifying as Christian has dropped below 50% for the first time. 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%).

The Archbishop of York said the country had

“left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian”.

The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell said: “It’s not a great surprise that the census shows fewer people in this country identifying as Christian than in the past, but it still throws down a challenge to us not only to trust that God will build his kingdom on Earth but also to play our part in making Christ known.”

Humanists UK ran a campaign in the run-up to the 2011 and 2021 censuses encouraging non-religious people to tick the “no religion” box on the form. Chief executive Andrew Copson said the figures should be a “wake-up call which prompts fresh reconsiderations of the role of religion in society”.

He said: “These results confirm that the biggest demographic change in England and Wales of the last 10 years has been the dramatic growth of the non-religious.

“They mean the UK is almost certainly one of the least religious countries on Earth.”