A Record 58% of People in Scotland Have No Religious Affiliation

[NeoGreen]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/07/02/a-record-58-of-people-in-scotland-have-no-religious-affiliation/

A Record 58% of People in Scotland Have No Religious Affiliation
July 2, 2017 by Hemant Mehta

Scotland has reached a new high when it comes to the percentage of the population with no religious faith.

Just last year, the number was at 52%. But a new survey released by ScotCen Social Research finds that the “Nones” now make up a whopping 58% of the country.

Quote:

The new findings from Scotland’s most authoritative survey of public attitudes show that nearly six in ten (58%) now say that they have no religion, up 18 points on 1999 when the figure stood at four in ten (40%).

Young people are least likely to be religious; three quarters of young people (74% of 18-34s) say they have no religion compared with 34% of those over 65.
…
Most of the decline in religious affiliation over this 17 year period has been felt by the Church of Scotland. Around half as many people (18%) now say they belong to the Church of Scotland as did in 1999 (35%).

The proportion of Roman Catholics (10%), other Christian affiliations (11%) and non-Christian religious people (2%) in the Scottish population has remained relatively stable over the same period.

Endquote:

This isn’t surprising to anyone who’s been following the trends. Scotland legalized gay marriage in 2012 despite opposition from the Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland. There’s also been an uptick in percentage of Humanist wedding ceremonies — more people than ever before want the Church to have no role at all in that celebration.