A Closer Look at Religion in England and Wales

Thank you to Belinda Kendall for sending this in about Christianity and other religious beliefs in England and Wales.

 

This video shows how Christianity is in decline in Britain and Wales particularly between 2001-2011.  But actually, the situation is worse than the video suggests.  This is because a lot of people "identify" with Christianity while not being active Christians, believing in Christianity's theological beliefs, or attending church.  Church attendance is about 4%-6%.

Notice that the Northwest (where Zach and Audrey will be going for 3W) seems to have quite a few Christians.  But actually, these are nominal Catholics and the churches are empty.

London, which really is the heart of secularism, according to this survey, has many people identifying themselves as Christians (but that's because it's full of immigrants that brought their Christianity with them from the Caribbean or Africa).

The "least Christian" places, are areas like Tower Hamlets that are overwhelmingly Muslim.

So what this survey captured was people's "identification with religion."  It does not capture whether people actively worship in a particular faith and whether they live their lives according to a particular theology.  Had that been the case, the results would have been ever worse than they are in this video.

We would find that very few whites in England believe in God.  Even fewer base their lives on the theological teachings of a particular religion.  The few active Christians we would find, would be amongst immigrant communities.  And the most religious people in Britain would primarily be Muslims and Hindus.