The church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ … if they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the bible itself, are simply a waste of time.
Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis (1952)
A UK census held in 2011 revealed that despite falling numbers, Christianity remained the largest religion with over 59% of the population identifying themselves as Christian. However, there has been an increase in those reporting to have no religious convictions. [1]
Summery for the UK total population (Census 2011): [2]
- Christianity 59.5%
- No religion 25.7%
- Religion not stated 7.2%
- Islam 4.4%
- Hinduism 1.3%
- Sikhism 0.7%
- Judaism 0.4%
- Buddhism 0.4%
- Other religion 0.4%
A Faith Survey (2016) indicated that: [3]
- UK Church membership has declined from 10.6 million in 1930 to 5.5 Million in 2010, or as a percentage of the population; from about 30% to 11.2%.
By 2013, this had declined further to 5.4 million (10.3%). If current trends continue, membership will fall to 8.4% of the population by 2025.2 - Church membership is declining in all four constituent countries of the UK, but in England the decline is relatively small, whereas the biggest decline appears to be in Scotland.
- In England, membership is forecast to decline to 2.53 million (4.3% of the population) by 2025.
[1] www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religioninenglandandwales2011/2012-12-11
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_Kingdom
[3] https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html