Yahoo News 'Dramatic decline' in Christianity in the UK as numbers identifying as Muslim and Atheist rise
The UK has seen a ‘dramatic decline’ in the number of Christians while the number of Muslims has doubled and there has been a “substantial increase” in Atheists.
The number of people identifying as Christian has fallen to the lowest level for 35 years, a state-of-the-nation survey has suggested.
Slightly over a third (38%) of the 3,879 people polled for the British Social Attitudes report described themselves as Christian, down from one-half (50%) in 2008, and nearly two-thirds (66%) in 1983.
The number of people who are Muslim in Britain has increased from 1% in 1983 to 3% in 2008 and 6% in 2018.
More than half of those polled (52%) said they do not belong to any religion.
Speaking to Yahoo News UK, Richy Thompson, director of Public Affairs at non-religion charity Humanists UK, said there are a number of reasons for the decrease in the number of religious people.
He said: “Our understanding of science has increased, we now have good explanations of how life came to be.
“Many religious groups find themselves out of bound when it comes to LGBT and women’s rights.
“People see it is more morally accepted to not have a religion, before people thought it was less moral but people are just as likely to volunteer and do charity work.”
Mr Thompson said he believed the trend was likely to continue with fewer and fewer people following a religion in the future.
Almost two thirds (63%) of Britons agreed religions bring more conflict than peace, while 13% disagreed.
The British Social Attitudes survey said religion decline is generational, highlighting that “people tend to be less religious than their parents, and on average their children are even less religious than they are”.
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The report, conducted by the National Centre for Social Research, said: “The past two decades have seen international conflict involving religion and domestic religious organisations, putting themselves at odds with mainstream values.
“We find a dramatic decline in identification with Christian denominations, particularly the Church of England, a substantial increase in atheism and in self-description as ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ non-religious … but tolerance of religious difference.”
