Irreligion in the United Kingdom

Irreligion in the United Kingdom

Total population
United Kingdom: 25,273,945 – 37.8% (2021) England: 20,715,664 – 36.7% (2021)[1] Scotland: 2,780,900 – 51.1% (2022)[2] Wales: 1,446,398 – 46.5% (2021)[1] Northern Ireland: 330,983 – 17.4% (2021)[note 1][3]
Religions
Irreligion: (including atheism, agnosticism, etc.) Note Includes No Religion, Jedi Knight, Agnostic, Atheist, Humanist, Free Thinker and 'No religion: Other'

Religion in the United Kingdom (2015 research)^[4]

  None (52%)

  Church of England (13.7%)

  Catholic Church (8.7%)

  Other Christian (13.2%)

  Islam (6.7%)

  Other religions (3.6%)

  Not stated (2.1%)

Irreligion in the United Kingdom is more prevalent than in some parts of Europe, with about 8% indicating they were atheistic in 2018,^[5] and 52% listing their religion as "none".^[4] A third of Anglicans polled in a 2013 survey doubted the existence of God, while 15% of those with no religion believed in some higher power, and deemed themselves "spiritual" or even "religious".^[6]

1700–1850

Organised activism for irreligion in the United Kingdom derived its roots from the legacy of British nonconformists. The South Place Religious Society, which would later become associated with the Ethical movement, was founded in 1793 as an organisation of Philadelphians or Universalists.^{[citation needed]}

In 1811, The Necessity of Atheism was published by a young Oxford student, Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was one of the first printed, open avowals of irreligion in England.^{[citation needed]}

The Oracle of Reason, the first avowedly atheist periodical publication in British history, was published from 1841 to 1843 by Charles Southwell. It suffered from numerous imprisonments of its staff, including Southwell, George Holyoake and Thomas Paterson, for missives deemed "blasphemous" by the authorities (Holyoake was the last person in Britain convicted of blasphemy in a public lecture). Holyoake took to publishing The Movement (1842–1845) following his six-month sentence, which later became The Reasoner (1845–1860) and shifted to a larger focus on social issues facing the British working class, increasing the publication's readership. It was during this time that Holyoake developed his idea for the replacement of Christianity with an ethical system based upon science and reason, terming his proposal "secularism".^[7]

1850–1900

Charles Bradlaugh, Member of Parliament for Northampton and founder of the National Secular Society in 1866.

George Holyoake's coining of the word secularism in 1851 offered the English-speaking world the clarification of the nascent movement for separation of religion and state. The National Secular Society, founded in 1866 by politician Charles Bradlaugh, spearheaded the advocacy for freeing citizens from absolute government requirements involving religious observances; the Leicester Secular Society was founded in 1851. Bradlaugh's 1880 election to Parliament brought on a decade-long dispute over the demanded right to affirm declarations of office rather than swear oaths, as he was denied his seat for five years by a ruling that he had no right to affirm and resolutions preventing him from swearing an oath. When Bradlaugh was ultimately admitted in 1886, he took up the issue and saw the Oaths Act 1888 passed, which confirmed the right to optionally affirm declarations for inaugurations to office and offering testimony to government bodies.^[8]

In 1881, The Freethinker began circulation as Britain's longest-running humanist periodical. In 1896, the Union of Ethical Societies was formed in the United Kingdom by American Stanton Coit as a union of pre-existing British Ethical movement societies; this group would later become known as the Ethical Union and the British Humanist Association.^[9] In 1899, the Rational Press Association was formed by a group of free-thinkers including Charles Albert Watts and George Holyoake.^{[citation needed]}

Meanwhile, the South Place Religious Society became further aligned with organised secularist advocacy during the tenure of Moncure D. Conway as minister of the congregation; Conway, an American Unitarian minister who served from 1864 to 1885 and 1892–1897, moved the congregation further away from doctrinal Unitarianism, and spent the break in his tenure (during which Stanton Coit served in his stead) writing a biography of American revolutionary ideologue Thomas Paine. In 1888, the South Place Religious Society became the South Place Ethical Society, now known as the Conway Hall Ethical Society.^{[citation needed]}

20th century

Richard Dawkins has been a significant figure in irreligion since the 1970s

The 1960s were a significant time for irreligion, as the Ethical Union rebranded as the British Humanist Association, which went on to co-found the International Humanist and Ethical Union and create a symbol for humanism, the Happy Human.^[9] Broadcasters such as Margaret K. Knight sensationalised Britain with open advocacy of non-religious values and secular education.^[10] Senior figures in the British humanist movement went out to take on leading roles in institutions such as UNESCO, the World Health Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization.^[11]

John William Gott, a working man of Bradford, West Yorkshire, attacked religion, especially Christianity, seeing it as reducing the opportunity for a socialist revolution. His lectures on rationalism and scepticism, and anti-Christian pamphlets, saw him jailed for blasphemy in 1911. Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith was one of a group of Members of Parliament who proposed an ultimately unsuccessful piece of legislation to abolish blasphemy offences. Gott was jailed again ten years later for a pamphlet showing Jesus as a clown, and died in 1922 soon after his nine-month sentence which included hard labour despite his worsening physical condition. There was a public backlash against his sentence.^[12]

Gott was the last Briton jailed for blasphemy, but the offence remained a technical crime through common law until being abolished in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.^{[citation needed]}

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who first came to prominence in 1976 following the release of The Selfish Gene, increasingly figured in British irreligion with the release of his 1986 work The Blind Watchmaker, in which he argued in favour of evolutionary natural selection as opposed to intelligent design and creationism.^{[citation needed]}

21st century

The most irreligious local authority from each country of Great Britain. In descending order, Shetland Islands (62.8%) in Scotland; Caerphilly (56.7%) in Wales; and Brighton and Hove (53.5%) in England.

In the 21st century, New Atheism became a popular topic of debate, support and critique in the United Kingdom. Dawkins' 2006 book The God Delusion and Christopher Hitchens' 2007 book God Is Not Great were considered emblematic works of the era among British authors, and Dawkins advocated for the Brights movement.^[13] The Atheist Bus Campaign was inaugurated during this time, in which advertisements on double-decker buses were purchased by the British Humanist Association in order to advocate non-belief in the supernatural; the campaign caused controversy and complaints to authorities, but soon spread to other countries and continents, taking root in the United States as a variety of atheist billboard campaigns.^[14] A 2009 survey of 1,000 teenagers aged 13 to 18 reports that two-thirds of British teenagers do not believe in God.^[15]

The rise in irreligion was confirmed in the UK's 2011 census, which saw irreligion rise from 7.7 million in 2001 to 14.1 million, a rise of 10.3 percentage points. The local authority in England with the highest level of irreligion was Norwich, the county town of Norfolk, where the level was 42.5%.^{[citation needed]} Religion has the least influence on youth.^[16] According to the 2011 census, 25% of England has no religion, 7% of Northern Ireland,^[17] one third in Scotland and one-third of Wales.^[18] In 2015, over 110 Parliamentarians in the UK are members of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, which means the non-religious have substantial representation among MPs and Lords.^[19]

According to YouGov, Christianity is perceived to be on the decline.^[20][21] Mori Polls have shown that British Christians support a secular state.^[22][23][24] Britons are amongst the most skeptical about religion.^[25]

Statistics from the Office of National Statistics published in 2019 showed that the number of non-religious people in Britain has increased by 46% since 2011 (up to a total of 39% of the population), with over 8 million more people declaring that they do not belong to any religious group. As well as this, the figures also show a 14% decline (from 59.3% to 51%) in the number of people identifying as Christian.^[26][27]

According to the 2021 United Kingdom census the number of Christians in England and Wales decreased for the first time to less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people), a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% (33.3 million) in 2011.^[28][29] with the number of those identifying as non religious becoming the second most common response, increasing by 12.0 percentage points to 37.2% (22.2 million) from 25.2% (14.1 million) in 2011.^[30][31] The equivalent census for Scotland in 2022 recorded, for the first time, a majority (51.1%) of the population holding no religious beliefs.^[32]

Humanists UK is the most prominent organisation espousing irreligion in the United Kingdom.^{[33][citation needed]} The organisation reported recent polling suggesting that the population with no religion may have reached 34 million.^[34]

In 2023, research from the World Value Survey found that only 49% of Britons said they believed in God. Nick Baldwin, LGBT Humanists coordinator, told PinkNews the findings underline what Humanists "already know": "The UK population is largely non-religious and getting increasingly more so." He said: "This is at odds with our state set-up which is overly religious in nature, from faith-based discrimination in schools to having bishops in the House of Lords. Our politicians need to wake up to the facts: we live in a diverse and plural society. We should strive to build a country that treats everyone equally regardless of religion or belief."^[35]

In 2024, the UK elected its least religious Parliament of all time, with 40% of new MPs choosing to make a secular affirmation rather than swear a religious oath, up from 24% in 2019. This included 50% of the new Cabinet and the new Prime Minister. Analysis showed this was because of the greatly increased intake of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, who were younger and less religious than the Conservative MPs they replaced. While some religious MPs take the affirmation for religious or other reasons, commentators noticed that this was likely outnumbered by self-declared atheist MPs who took the more traditional oath.^[36][37]

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
2001	9,103,727[α]	—
2011	16,221,509	+78.2%
2021	25,273,945	+55.8%
Religious Affiliation was not recorded in the census prior to 2001. Source: Office for National Statistics

Geographical distribution

Distribution of Irreligious by local authority, 2021 census

Irreligious in the United Kingdom by region and country

Region / Country	2021[41]		2011[46]		2001[51]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
England	20,715,664	36.7%	13,114,232	24.7%	7,171,332	14.6%
—South East	3,733,094	40.2%	2,388,286	27.7%	1,319,979	16.5%
—East	2,544,509	40.2%	1,631,572	27.9%	902,145	16.7%
—South West	2,513,369	44.1%	1,549,201	29.3%	825,461	16.7%
—North West	2,419,624	32.6%	1,397,916	19.8%	705,045	10.5%
—Greater London	2,380,404	27.1%	1,694,372	20.7%	1,130,616	15.8%
—Yorkshire and the Humber	2,161,185	39.4%	1,366,219	25.9%	699,327	14.1%
—West Midlands	1,955,003	32.9%	1,230,910	22.0%	647,718	12.3%
—East Midlands	1,950,354	40.0%	1,248,056	27.5%	664,845	15.9%
—North East	1,058,122	40.0%	607,700	23.4%	276,196	11.0%
Scotland	2,780,900[β]	51.1%	1,941,116	36.7%	1,394,460	27.6%
Wales	1,446,398	46.5%	982,997	32.1%	537,935	18.5%
Northern Ireland	330,983	17.4%	183,164	10.1%	—	—
United Kingdom	25,273,945	37.8%	16,221,509	25.7%	9,103,727[α]	15.9

The 2021 United Kingdom census recorded an irreligious population of 25.3 million or 37.8% of the population in the United Kingdom. When broken down by country, England recorded 20.7 million (36.7%), Wales recorded 1.4 million (46.5%) and Northern Ireland recorded 331,000 (17.4%).^[38] The equivalent census was recorded a year later in Scotland with a population of 2.8 million, or 51.1% of the population.^[40] The five local authorities with the largest proportion of those who identified as holding no religious beliefs were all located in Scotland: Shetland Islands (62.75%), Fife (60.55%), Midlothian (60.54%), Aberdeenshire (58.96%) and Clackmannanshire (58.33%). In Wales, the highest proportion was in Caerphilly at 56.70%; in England, the highest proportion was in Brighton and Hove at 55.20%; and in Northern Ireland, the highest concentration was in Ards and North Down at 30.63%.^[39]

See also

• Disestablishmentarianism
• Religion in the United Kingdom

Notes

1. Figures are for Great Britain only, i.e. excludes Northern Ireland. The census for Northern Ireland combined results for 'No Religion' and 'Religion not stated' together.
2. Scotland held its census a year later after the rest of the United Kingdom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, data shown is for 2022 as opposed to 2021.

References

1. "Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
2. "Scotland's Census 2022 - Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion - Chart data". Scotland's Census. National Records of Scotland. 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024. Alternative URL 'Search data by location' > 'All of Scotland' > 'Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion' > 'Religion'
3. "MS-B21: Religion". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. 22 September 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
4. "United Kingdom". Association of Religion Data Archives. 2015. Archived from the original on 2 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
5. Being Christian in Western Europe, Pew Research 2018 https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/05/29/being-christian-in-western-europe/
6. Linda Woodhead, “No Religion” is the New Religion, Westminster Faith Debates, 2013; The Rise of ‘No Religion’ in Britain: The Emergence of a New Cultural Majority, Journal of the British Academy, 2016.
7. "George Holyoake : Biography". Spartacus-Educational.com. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
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13. James Wood (26 August 2011). "The New Atheism | Books". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
14. Andrew Brown (26 April 2012). "The persistence of superstition in an irreligious Britain | Andrew Brown | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
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28. "Less than half of England and Wales population Christian, Census 2021 shows". BBC News. 29 November 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
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30. "Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
31. "Less than half of England and Wales population Christian, Census 2021 shows". BBC News. 29 November 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
32. "Most Scots have no religion - census". BBC News. 21 May 2024.
33. "About us". Humanists UK. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
34. "Alice Roberts hands Humanists UK Presidency to Adam Rutherford". Humanists UK. 6 June 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
35. "UK belief in God among lowest in world, according to science". 19 May 2023.
36. "Highest number of MPs ever take secular affirmation". Humanists UK. 11 July 2024. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
37. Chris Smyth; Kaya Burgess (11 July 2024). "Britain has elected the most godless parliament in its history". The Times. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
38. "TS030 - Religion Edit query". www.nomisweb.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
39. "MS-B21: Religion - full detail". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.
40. "Council Area 2019 by Religion by Individuals". National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 24 May 2024. Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion > Religion UV205
41. 2021/22: England and Wales,^[38] Northern Ireland,^[39] and Scotland^[40]
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45. "Scotland's Census 2011: Table KS209SCa" (PDF). scotlandcensus.gov.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
46. 2011: England and Wales,^[42] Northern Ireland,^[43][44] and Scotland^[45]
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48. "Census 2001: Religion (administrative geographies)". nisra.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 25 February 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
49. "Table KS07c: Religion (full list with 10 or more persons)". nisra.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 25 February 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
50. "Summary: Religious Group Demographics". scotland.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
51. 2001: England and Wales,^[47] Northern Ireland^[48][49] and Scotland^[50]