Less than half declare themselves Christian in England and Wales

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 said.

The percentage of people saying they had no religion jumped from around a quarter in 2011 to over a third in 2021.

This was the second most common response and the number ticking this box has almost trebled since 2001.

There were increases in the proportion of people describing themselves as

Muslim (up from 4.9% to 6.5%) and Hindu (from 1.5% to 1.7%).

In a third of households, all members reported the same religion, while 13.7% have a mix of religious and nonreligious people and in 1.1% at least two different religions were reported.

In a fifth of households, all members said they had no religion.

London remains the most religiously diverse region of England, with just over a quarter of people reporting a religion other than Christian.

The Archbishop of York said the country had “left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian”.