Less than half of England and Wales population Christian, Census 2021 shows

[muriel_volestrangler]

Polls have had results like this for a few years, but the census seems to get people to think more "do I have any connection I feel with a religion?" rather than "is it an important part of my life", and so has shown higher numbers for religions, so this is notable.

Fewer than half of people in England and Wales have described themselves as Christian for the first time, the 2021 census has revealed.

The proportion of people who said they were Christian was 46.2%, down from 59.3% in the last census in 2011.

Meanwhile the number who said they had no religion increased to 37.2% of the population, up from a quarter.

And people identifying as Muslim rose from 4.9% in 2011 to 6.5% last year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63792408

Religion 2011 2021 2011 (%) 2021 (%)
Buddhist 248,580 272,508 0.4 0.5
Christian 33,268,056 27,522,672 59.3 46.2
Hindu 817,679 1,032,775 1.5 1.7
Jewish 265,073 271,327 0.5 0.5
Muslim 2,720,425 3,868,133 4.9 6.5
Sikh 423,345 524,140 0.8 0.9
Other religion 240,849 348,334 0.4 0.6
No religion 14,115,359 22,162,062 25.2 37.2
Not answered 3,976,542 3,595,589 7.1 6.0

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021

[jimfields33]

1. The question is, is the world better for it?

Have we improved? Is life better without religion? Are people happier? Would be an interesting study.

[edhopper]

2. Yes it is an improvement

Life is better in less religious countries than more religious ones.
"Happier"?, that is hard to quantify.

[jimfields33]

3. Good points. I tend to agree that countries without religious focus are better.

[edhopper]

4. It's really a matter of the country

In a social democratic country, like in Europe, it's better. Certainly the people's lives there are better and they are happier than our much more religious country. But in places like China, I can't say they are better than when it was more religious. I think religion does more harm than good over all, but it really depends what social constructs take it's place.