2011 England Wales Census Released Today Shows 20 percent Decrease in Self ID Christians

The new Census of England and Wales is ou today  by the Government. This census looks at religion as a part of the questions it asks and the results are shocking.

 A PDF is here that has some maps and charts  too.


In the 2011 Census, Christianity was the largest religion, with 33.2 million people (59.3 per cent


of the population). The second largest religious group were Muslims with 2.7 million people (4.8

per cent of the population).

• 14.1 million people, around a quarter of the population in England and Wales, reported they have

no religion in 2011.

• The religion question was the only voluntary question on the 2011 census and 7.2 per cent of

people did not answer the question.

• Between 2001 and 2011 there has been a decrease in people who identify as Christian (from

71.7 per cent to 59.3 per cent) and an increase in those reporting no religion (from 14.8 per cent

to 25.1 per cent). There were increases in the other main religious group categories, with the

number of Muslims increasing the most (from 3.0 per cent to 4.8 per cent).

• In 2011, London was the most diverse region with the highest proportion of people identifying

themselves as Muslim, Bhuddist, Hindu and Jewish. The North East and North West had the

highest proportion of Christians and Wales had the highest proportion of people reporting no

religion.

• Knowsley was the local authority with the highest proportion of people reporting to be Christians

at 80.9 per cent and Tower Hamlets had the highest proportion of Muslims at 34.5 per cent (over

7 times the England and Wales figure). Norwich had the highest proportion of the population

reporting no religion at 42.5 per cent.