Religion in England

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Culture of England
History
People
Languages
Traditions
Folklore
Cuisine
Festivals
Religion
Art
Literature
Music and Performing arts
Media
Sport
Monuments
  • World Heritage Sites
Symbols

Religion in England (2021 census)

  Christianity (46.3%)
  No religion (36.7%)
  Islam (6.7%)
  Hinduism (1.8%)
  Sikhism (0.9%)
  Buddhism (0.5%)
  Judaism (0.5%)
  Other faiths (0.6%)
  Not stated (6.0%)

Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury and a World Heritage Site.[1]

Bahá'í Faith.[2] There are also organisations promoting irreligion, including humanism and atheism. According to the 2021 census, Shamanism is the fastest growing religion in England.[3]

Many of England's most notable buildings and monuments are religious in nature: Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral. The festivals of Christmas and Easter are widely celebrated in the country.

Statistics

The 2001 and 2011 censuses did not include on adherence to individual Christian denominations, since they were asked only in the Scottish and Northern Ireland censuses and not in England and Wales.

Eastern Orthodox. Muslims were 4.8% and 3.4% members of other religions, 5.3% were agnostics, 6.8% were atheists and 15.0% were not sure about their religious affiliation or did not answer the question.[5]

Religion 2001[6] 2011[7] 2021[8]
Number % Number % Number %
Christianity
 35,251,244 71.7 31,479,876 59.4 26,167,899 46.3
No religion 7,171,332 14.6 13,114,232 24.7 20,715,664 36.7
Islam 1,524,887 3.1 2,660,116 5.0 3,801,186 6.7
Hinduism 546,982 1.1 806,199 1.5 1,020,533 1.8
Sikhism 327,343 0.7 420,196 0.8 520,092 0.9
Judaism 257,671 0.5 261,282 0.5 269,283 0.5
Buddhism 139,046 0.3 238,626 0.5 262,433 0.5
Other religion 143,811 0.3 227,825 0.4 332,410 0.6
Religion not stated 3,776,515 7.7 3,804,104 7.2 3,400,548 6.0
Total population 49,138,831 100.0 53,012,456 100.0 56,490,048 100.0

Abrahamic religions

Christianity

Demographics

Historical Population
YearPop.±%
2001 35,251,244—    
2011 31,479,876−10.7%
2021 26,167,899−16.9%
Religious Affiliation was not recorded prior to 2001.


British Christians by Ethnic group and Nationality
Ethnic group 2021[9]
Number Christians as % of ethnic group Ethnic group as % of Christian
White 23,402,349 51.12% 89.43%
– British 20,506,667 49.36% 78.37%
– Irish 354,595 71.74% 1.36%
– Roma 71,268 71.89% 0.27%
– Irish Traveller 40,352 62.84% 0.15%
– Other White 2,152,950 60.05% 8.25%
Mixed 611,454 36.63% 2.34%
– White and Black Caribbean 191,402 38.33% 0.73%
– White and Asian 130,061 27.43% 0.50%
– White and Black African 119,377 49.43% 0.46%
– Other Mixed 170,614 37.55% 0.65%
Asian 555,733 10.24% 2.34%
–
Indian
 220,688 11.97% 0.84%
–
Pakistani
 11,953 0.76% 0.05%
–
Bangladeshi
 2,119 0.34% 0.01%
– Chinese 74,637 17.31% 0.29%
– Other Asian 246,336 25.87% 0.94%
Black 1,598,363 67.11% 6.11%
– African 967,405 65.88% 3.69%
– Caribbean 428,150 69.12% 1.64%
– Other Black 202,448 68.90% 0.77%
Other 276,517 22.49% 1.06%
–
Arab
 13,278 4.15% 0.05%
– Other Ethnic group 263,239 28.96% 1.01%

History of Christianity

Chi-rho page of the 8th-century Lichfield Gospels
.
See also:
History of Christianity in England

first martyr. Other notable saints from the early period of Christianity in England include Saint Ethelbert and Saint Morwenna
.

Protestantism

Church of England (Anglicanism)
Main article: Church of England

The

Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer. In 2010, the Church of England counted 25 million baptised members out of the 41 million Christians in Great Britain's population of about 60 million;[10][11] around the same time, it also claimed to baptise one in eight newborn children.[12] Generally, anyone in England may marry or be buried at their local parish church, whether or not they have been baptised in the church.[13] Actual attendance has declined steadily since 1890,[14] with around one million, or 10% of the baptised population attending Sunday services on a regular basis (defined as once a month or more) and three million- roughly 15%- joining Christmas Eve and Christmas services.[15] It has around 18 000 active and ordained clergy.[16]

The Free Church of England is another Anglican denomination which separated from the Church of England in the 19th century in opposition to shifts in doctrine and ceremony which brought the established church closer to Roman Catholicism. The Free Church of England is in communion with the Reformed Episcopal Church in the United States and Canada.

Catholicism

Main articles:
Catholic Church in England and Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom
Our Lady of Walsingham

The

northwest. Some studies show that weekly attendance at Catholic masses now exceeds that of the Anglican services.[23]

Other

No other church in England has more than a million members, with most quite small.

A Baptist church in Birmingham, West Midlands.

Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough
, which started with 9 people in 1988 and now has a congregation in excess of 1,500.

Various forms of Protestantism developed from the ferment of the

Mennonite congregation in England, the Wood Green Mennonite Church in London.[26]

The Cathedral of the Dormition of the Most-Holy Mother of God and the Holy Royal Martyrs in Gunnersbury.

Most

Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas in Toxteth, Liverpool, was built in 1870. It is an enlarged version of St Theodore's church in Constantinople and is a Grade II Listed building
.

There are various

Episcopal Vicariate in the UK
.

As well as the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches, there are also the

St. George's Cathedral in London and a number of parishes across England.[30]

All

Midlands and its affiliated areas; and South Wales. In addition, there is one Patriarchal Exarchate at Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Most British converts belong to the British Orthodox Church, which is canonically part of the Coptic Orthodox Church. There is also the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in London. There is also the Armenian Apostolic Church
in London.

Islam

Further information: Islam in England
Muslim population in English local authority areas.
  0.0%–0.9%
  1%–1.9%
  2%–4.9%
  5%–9.9%
  10%–19.9%
  20+%
The East London Mosque was one of the first mosques in England to be allowed to broadcast the adhan using loudspeakers.[31]

According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, 3,801,186 Muslims live in England, or 6.7% of the population. The Muslim population had grown by over a million compared to the 2011 census.[32]

According to the 2011 Census, 2.7 million Muslims live in England where they form 5.0% of the population.[7]

Although

Offa, the eighth-century King of Mercia (one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existing at that time), to have coins minted with an Islamic inscription on them—copies of coins issued by the near-contemporary Muslim ruler Al-Mansur. It is thought that they were minted to facilitate trade with the expanding Islamic empire in Spain.[33]

Muslim scholarship was well known among the learned in England by 1386, when

Razi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina, Arabic ابن سينا) and Averroes
(Ibn Rushd, Arabic ابن رشد). Ibn Sina's canon of medicine was a standard text for medical students well into the 17th century.

Today Islam is the second largest religion in England. About 38% of English Muslims live in London, where they make up 12.4% of the population. There are also large numbers of Muslims in Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford, Luton, Slough, Leicester and the mill towns of Northern England such as Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Oldham.[7]

Notable mosques include the

Markazi Mosque
.

Judaism

Further information:
Jews in England
Singers Hill Synagogue, Birmingham, England.

Until the 20th century, Judaism was the only noticeable non-Christian religion having first appeared in historical records during the Norman Conquest of 1066. In fact, from 1290 to 1656, Judaism did not officially exist in England due to an outright expulsion in 1290 and official restrictions that were not lifted until 1656 (though historical records show that some Jews did come back to England during the early part of the 17th century prior to the lifting of the restriction). Now, the presence of the Jewish culture and Jews in England today is one of the largest in the world.

Baháʼí Faith

See also: Baháʼí Faith in England

The

Carlisle[35] to Cornwall.[36]

Indian religions

Main article: Indian religions

Hinduism

Further information: Hinduism in England
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London, United Kingdom is the largest Hindu temple in England.

Early Hindus in England were mostly students during the 19th century. There have been three waves of migration of Hindus to England since then.

Before

Punjabi and Gujarati Hindus, but, by 2000, small Hindu communities of every ethnicity could be found in England. England is also host to a large immigrant community of Sri Lankan Hindus who are mostly Tamils
. The last wave of migration of Hindus has been taking place since the 1990s with refugees from Sri Lanka and professionals from India. However, there is becoming an increasing number of English Western Hindus in England, who have either converted from another faith or been an English Hindu from birth.

Sikhism

Further information: Sikhism in England

The first Sikh Gurdwara (temple) was established in 1911, at Putney in London.

The first Sikh migration came in the 1950s. It was mostly of men from the Punjab seeking work in industries like foundries and textiles. These new arrivals mostly settled in London, Birmingham and West Yorkshire. Thousands of Sikhs from East Africa soon followed. This mass immigration was caused by Idi Amin's persecution of ethnic groups in Uganda, with thousands forced to flee the region in fear of losing their lives.[citation needed]

Buddhism

Buddhist peace pagoda at Battersea Park, London
Further information: Buddhism in England

The earliest Buddhist influence on England came through the UK's imperial connections with

Burma and Thailand. The tradition of study resulted in the foundation of the Pali Text Society, which undertook the task of translating the Pali Canon
of Buddhist texts into English.

In 1924 London's

Zen Buddhism
.

In the 1970s, a Theravāda monastic order consists mainly of Westerners following the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah was established at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in West Sussex, and also established branches monasteries elsewhere in the country.

Modern paganism

Modern druids at Stonehenge
.
Main article: Modern paganism in the United Kingdom

At the 2011 census 75,281

Heathenry
.

Paganism in England
Pagan Religions 2011[9] 2021[38]
Paganism/Modern pagan religions 83,762 95,931
– Pagan 53,172 68,629
– Wicca 11,026 11,952
– Heathen 1,867 4,479
– Druid 3,946 2,269
– Witchcraft 1,193 975
– Shamanism 612 7,623

Wicca

Wicca was developed in England in the first half of the 20th century.[39] Although it had various terms in the past, from the 1960s onward the name of the religion was normalised to Wicca.[40]

Heathenry

Main article: Heathenry in the United Kingdom

Asatru UK, although lacking official membership statistics, as of February 2022 had 3177 members of its Facebook group.[41]

Druidism

During the

Neo-Druidism grew out of the Celtic revival in 18th-century Romanticism. The 2011 census states there are 4,189 Druids in England and Wales.[42] A 2012 analysis by the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids estimates that there are between 6,000 and 11,000 Druids in Britain.[43]

Other religions

Other religions include:[44]

Other religion 2011[45] 2021[46]
Spiritualism and new religious movements 67,666 78,851
– Spiritualism1 49,361 60,912
– Rastafari 7,657 5,802
– Satanism 1,800 4,751
– Pantheism 2,105 2,158
– Scientology 2,361 1,833
– Animism 487 733
– Universalism 862 721
– Occult 474 457
– New Age 665 373
– Eckankar 367 319
– Brahma Kumaris 434 229
–
Thelemite
 176 209
– Unification Church 435 195
– Mysticism 192 137
– Church of all Religions 380 22
Indian Religions 31,238 35,485
– Jainism 20,193 24,887
– Ravidassia 11,045 9,564
– Valmiki 1,034
Alevism 25,460
Mixed Religion(s) 21,907 10,981
Iranian Religions 8,801 8,910
–
Bahá'í Faith
 4,746 4,489
– Zoroastrianism 4,055 4,029
– Yazidism 392
East Asian Religions 5,247 5,287
– Taoism 3,916 3,525
– Shinto 1,041 1,337
– Chinese Religions 174 109
– Confucianism 116 76
Other religions 21,060 71,760
– Theism2 3,618 3,143
– Own Belief System 1,842 2,067
– Deism 1,142 1,036
– Reconstructionism 223 697
–
Traditional African religion
 584 651
– Druze 504 619
–
Vodon
 198 246
– Native American Church 119 74
– Other religions 12,830 63,227
Total population 155,919 217,804
1 includes people who reported "spiritual"
2 includes people who reported "Believe in God"

Historical religions

Statue of Epona, a Celtic goddess adopted by the Romans

These faiths, all of which are considered to be

Christianisation. [citation needed
]

Gallo-Roman religion

Celtic religion such as the druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain,[47] were outlawed by Claudius,[48] and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey).[49] However, under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham
. The founding of a temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica.

Eastern cults such as

Temple of Mithras is one example of the popularity of mystery religions
among the rich urban classes.

Germanic paganism

In the

Norse paganism
.

Notable places of worship

The varied religious, denominational, racial, and ethnic history of England has left a wide range of religious buildings—

kingdom halls. Besides its spiritual importance, the religious architecture includes buildings of importance to the tourism industry and local pride. As a result of the Reformation, the ancient cathedrals remained in the possession of the then-established churches, while most Roman Catholic churches date from Victorian times or are of more recent construction (in Liverpool the ultra-modern Roman Catholic cathedral was actually completed before the more traditional Anglican cathedral
, whose construction took most of the twentieth century). Notable places of worship include (but are not limited to):

  • Oldham Central Mosque – Islamic

    • Irreligion

    See also: Irreligion in the United Kingdom

    36.7% of people in England declared no religion in 2021, compared with 24.7% in 2011 and 14.6% in 2001. These figures are slightly lower than the combined figures for England and Wales as Wales has a higher level of irreligion than England.[7] Brighton and Hove had the highest such proportion at 55.2%, followed by Norwich at 53.5%, Bristol and Hastings at 51.4%[50]

    Irrelgious by Ethnic group and Nationality
    Ethnic group 2021[9]
    Number % of ethnic group reported no religion
    White 19,156,458 41.84
    – British 18,104,217 43.58
    – Irish 105,736 21.39
    – Roma 17,337 17.59
    – Irish Traveller 18,120 28.22
    – Other White 911,048 25.41
    Asian 481,282 8.87
    –
    Indian
    		 83,109 4.51
    –
    Pakistani
    		 18,149 1.16
    –
    Bangladeshi
    		 9,024 1.43
    – Chinese 269,092 62.41
    – Other Asian 101,908 10.70
    Black 202,935 8.52
    – African 52,821 3.60
    – Caribbean 115,144 18.59
    – Other Black 34,970 11.90
    Mixed 726,429 43.51
    – White and Black Caribbean 256,376 51.35
    – White and Asian 221,505 46.71
    – White and Black African 79,263 32.82
    – Other Mixed 169,285 37.26
    Other 148,562 12.09
    –
    Arab
    		 15,405 4.81
    – Other Ethnic group 133,157 14.65
    TOTAL 20,715,664 36.7

    See also

    References

    1. ^ "Home". Canterbury Cathedral. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
    2. ^ "Religion (2019)". ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
    3. ^ "Shamanism: What you need to know about the fastest-growing 'religion' in England and Wales". 5 January 2023.
    4. ^ Guidance and Methodology, Religion, retrieved 31 January 2014.
    5. ^ "Understanding the 21st Century Catholic Community" (PDF). CAFOD, Ipsos MORI. November 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 September 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
    6. ^ "Religion (2001 Census)". data.gov.uk. 9 February 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
    7. ^ a b c d "2011 Census: KS209EW Religion, local authorities in England and Wales". ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
    8. ^ "Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
    9. ^ a b c "UK Government Web Archive".
    10. ^ Gledhill, Ruth (15 February 2007). "Catholics set to pass Anglicans as leading UK church". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 18 September 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
    11. ^ "How many Catholics are there in Britain?". BBC. London. 15 September 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
    12. ^ "2009 Church Statistics" (PDF). Church of England. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
    13. ^ See the pages linked from "Life Events". Church of England. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 13 February 2015..
    14. ^ Bowler, Peter J. (2001). Reconciling science and religion: the debate in early-twentieth-century Britain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 194..
    15. ^ "Facts and Stats". Church of England.
    16. ^ "Research and Statistics". Church of England. Retrieved 9 May 2012..
    17. ^ Elenna Curti and Christopher Lamb, "Cathedral countdown to installation," The Tablet, 16 May 2009, 39.
    18. ^ Lucy Wooding, "Binding Identities," The Tablet, 26 June 2011, 26.
    19. ^ "Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols is made cardinal," The Telegraph, 22 February 2014.
    20. ^ Bishop, Erin I. 'My Darling Danny': Letters from Mary O'Connell to Her Son Daniel, 1830–1832. Cork: Cork University Press, 1998
    21. ^ William Maziere Brady, Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy in England and Scotland A.D. 1585-1876 (London: J.M. Stark, 1883).
    22. ^ "Royal nod for daughters, Catholics". The Age. Melbourne. 29 October 2011.
    23. ^ a b Wynne-Jones, Jonathan (23 December 2007). "Britain has become a 'Catholic country'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
    24. ^ "Numbers Game," The Tablet, 31 October 2009, 16.
    25. ^ 'Fringe' Church winning the believers The Times, 19 December 2006(subscription required)
    26. ^ "Who are the Mennonites?". London Mennonite Centre. Retrieved 5 September 2008. [dead link]
    27. ^ "Current Hierarchs of the Archdiocese of Great Britain". Orthodox Research Institute. 2008. Archived from the original on 16 March 2002. Retrieved 5 September 2008.
    28. ^ Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateira & Great Britain (21 April 2000). "The Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain and Orthodoxy in the British Isles". Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. Retrieved 5 September 2008.
    29. ^ "Welcome". Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sourozh. Archived from the original on 23 June 2008. Retrieved 5 September 2008.
    30. Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch Deanery of the United Kingdom and Ireland. 2008. Retrieved 5 September 2008.[permanent dead link
      ]
    31. ISBN 0520204042
      . Retrieved 24 April 2015. The mosque committee was determined from the outset, moreover, to remind local people of the building's religious function as loudly as possible. As one of the few mosques in Britain permitted to broadcast calls to prayer (azan), the mosque soon found itself at the center of a public debate about "noise pollution" when local non-Muslim residents began to protest.
    32. ^ "Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
    33. ^ Gold imitation dinar of Offa Archived 12 September 2012 at archive.today, British Museum
    34. ^ Baháʼí Information Office (United Kingdom) (1989). "First Public Mentions of the Baháʼí Faith". Archived from the original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 18 February 2008.
    35. ^ The Baháʼí Faith in Cumbria Archived 22 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine bci.org accessed 6 January 2009
    36. ^ Welcome to the Baháʼís of Cornwall website of Cornish Baháʼís, accessed. 6 January 2009
    37. ^ a b 2011 ONS results
    38. ^ "Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics".
    39. ISBN 0-19-820744-1
      .
    40. ^ Seims, Melissa (2008). "Wica or Wicca? – Politics and the Power of Words". The Cauldron (129).
    41. ^ Asatru UK | Facebook Available at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AsatruUK/members [Accessed February 13, 2022]
    42. ^ Robert Booth (11 December 2012). "Census 2011 data on religion reveals Jedi Knights are in decline". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
    43. ^ "UK 2011 Census Publishes Figures for Druids". The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids. Archived from the original on 13 June 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
    44. ^ Simon Rogers (11 December 2012). "Census 2011: how many Jedi Knights are there in England & Wales?". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
    45. ^ "Data Viewer - Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics".
    46. ^ "Religion (Detailed) - Office for National Statistics".
    47. ^ Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 6.13
    48. ^ Suetonius, Claudius 12.5
    49. ^ Tacitus, Annals 14.30
    50. ^ "Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics".

    External links

    Further reading

    • Bebbington, David W. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (Routledge, 2003)
    • Chadwick, Owen, The Victorian Church: Vol 1 1829–1859 (1966); Victorian Church: Part two 1860–1901 (1979); a major scholarly survey
    • Davie, Grace. Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without belonging (Blackwell, 1994)
    • Davies, Rupert E. et al. A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain (3 vol. Wipf & Stock, 2017). online
    • Gilley, Sheridan, and W. J. Sheils. A History of Religion in Britain: Practice and Belief from Pre-Roman Times to the Present (1994) 608pp excerpt and text search
    • Hastings, Adrian. A History of English Christianity: 1920–1985 (1986) 720pp a major scholarly survey
    • Hylson-Smith, Kenneth. The churches in England from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II (1996).
    • Marienberg, Evyatar. Religion in England from Prehistoric Times to the Early 1980s: With a special emphasis, when relevant, on Catholicism, and the country’s North East (2021) 135pp amazon
    • Marshall, Peter. "(Re)defining the English Reformation," Journal of British Studies, July 2009, Vol. 48#3 pp. 564–586
    • Thomas, Keith. Religion and the decline of magic: studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England (1991), a study of popular religious behaviour and beliefs
    • Voas, David, and Alasdair Crockett. "Religion in Britain: Neither believing nor belonging." Sociology 39.1 (2005): 11–28. online

    Primary sources

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Religion_in_England&oldid=1218879334"