Christians total less than 50%

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

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