By John Pickard
The headline in the Daily Express this week – “Less than half the population is Christian” – was an example of dog-whistle racism typical of the gutter press. It was implying, as these papers always do, that the ‘British way of life’ was somehow under threat. The unnamed origin of the threat were, of course, migrants and especially Muslims.
What the headline did not make clear was that the 2021 census data that has been newly released shows a generalised shift away from religion within the population. It is not that Christianity is being ‘swamped’ by an alien religion – it is more the case that those of Christian ‘heritage’ are turning their back on organised religion altogether.
On the census, the question on religion was voluntary, but still 94% of people responded to it, a total of 56 million. For the first time in England and Wales, less than half of the population (only 46%) described themselves as ‘Christian’ a 13% decrease from the previous census ten years earlier.
Despite this decline – Daily Express headline writers please note – ‘Christian’ was still the most common response to the question on religion. What was the second most common response? It was ‘no religion’, the answer given by over 22 million people, an increase of eight million from 2011. The percentage increase in those then years was from 25.2% to 37.2%.
The Daily Express writers want us all to be fearful of the increase in ‘non-native’ religions, of course, but only 3.9 million answered ‘Muslim’ as their religion (6.5%) and one million ‘Hindu’ (1.7%). Both of these religious groups increased, but neither of them anything like as much as the ‘no religion’ population.
The Welsh were in the lead in turning away from Christianity, their ‘Christian’ percentage declining from 56.7% to 43.6% in ten years. ‘No religion’ increased by 14.5% from 32.1% to 46.5%.
London remains the most religiously diverse region of England – something which is probably true of every capital city in the world. In London, just over a quarter reported a religion other than ‘Christian’, with the North East and South West as the least religiously diverse, with less than a twentieth selecting a religion other than Christianity.
The decline in religion has a lot to do with all-pervasive spread of scientific knowledge and application. Modern medicine, biology and astronomy, have forced the superstitious ideas and organised religion to beat a retreat. It is not a coincidence that the religious right wing, particularly in the USA, is not only anti-atheist, but also actively anti-science, denying anything from space research to vaccination.
The decline would also certainly have a lot to do with the almost continuous revelations of abuse within the Church and organisations connected with it, like orphanages and children’s homes. In countries like the Republic of Ireland, the stance of the Catholic Church against women’s rights, gay rights and divorce, as well as frequent scandals, have reduced the influence of the Church to a pale shadow of what it was formerly.
The data release from the census doesn’t (yet) link age with views on religion, but it would be my guess that the pronounced shift away from the God Squad is led by youth, so the trend is likely, if anything, to continue.
