Number of Britons who identify as Church of England at record low
THE NUMBER of people who describe themselves as belonging to the Church of England is at a record low, a survey found.
Since 2002, the proportion of Britons who identify as Church of England – whose most senior bishop is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby – has more than halved, falling from 31 per cent to 14 per cent.
The sharpest decline is among 45 to 54-year-olds – 35 per cent in 2002 compared with 11 per cent in 2017, according to data from the National Centre for Social Research’s (NatCen) British social attitudes survey. The proportion of people who say they are Roman Catholic (eight per cent), belonging to “other Christian affiliations” (10 per cent) and “of non-Christian faiths” (eight per cent) have remained fairly stable.
Fifty two per cent of people now say they have no religion, compared with 41 per cent in 2002. Seventy per cent of those aged 18-24 say they have no religion – an increase from 56 per cent in 2002, while two per cent of this group view themselves as Anglicans, down from nine per cent in 2002.
Roger Harding, head of public attitudes at the NatCen, said: “Our figures show an unrelenting decline in Church of England and Church of Scotland numbers.
This is especially true for young people, where less than one in 20 now belong to their established church.”