Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

is the largest

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

in the United Kingdom. Results of the 2021 Census for England and Wales showed that

is the largest religion (though it makes up less than half of the population at 46.2%), followed by the

non-religious Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ration ...

(37.2%),

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

(6.5%),

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

(1.7%),

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

(0.9%),

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

(0.5%),

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

(0.5%), and others (0.6%). Among Christians,

Anglicanism Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

is the most common denomination, with 53% of Christians believers in the UK identifying with this denomination as of 2023, followed by

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Unitarianism Unitarianism () is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian sect of Christianity. Unitarian Christians affirm the wikt:unitary, unitary God in Christianity, nature of God as the singular and unique Creator deity, creator of the universe, believe that ...

, and

Baptists Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

. Results for the 2022 census in Scotland indicated that the majority (51%) had no religion, but that 38.8% of the Scottish population identified as Christian (of which 20% identified with the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

and 13% with the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

). In Northern Ireland, Christianity is the largest religion (79.7%) followed by non-religious (17.4%), other religions (1.3%), and not stated (1.5%). The

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

is the state church of England, whilst the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

is the

national church A national church is a Christian church associated with a specific ethnic group or nation state. The idea was notably discussed during the 19th century, during the emergence of modern nationalism. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a draft discussing ...

of Scotland. The

Monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

of the United Kingdom is the

supreme governor of the Church of England The Supreme Governor of the Church of England is the titular head of the Church of England, a position which is vested in the British monarch.

. Both Northern Ireland and Wales have no state religion since the

Irish Church Act 1869 The Irish Church Act 1869 ( 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which separated the Church of Ireland from the Church of England and disestablished the former, a body that commanded the adherence of a small mi ...

and the

Welsh Church Act 1914 The Welsh Church Act 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 91) is an act of Parliament (UK), act of Parliament under which the Church of England was separated and disestablishment, disestablished in Wales and Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire, leading to ...

, respectively. A large number of individuals have no religious affiliation, and many others are only nominally affiliated, and neither believe nor practice.

History

Prehistory–11th century: Paganism and Christianisation

Before the

Roman conquest of Britain The Roman conquest of Britain was the Roman Empire's conquest of most of the island of Great Britain, Britain, which was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the ...

, various types of

British paganism Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because there are no extant native records of their beliefs, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco- ...

were practiced which included

ancestor worship The veneration of the dead, including one's ancestors, is based on love and respect for the deceased. In some cultures, it is related to beliefs that the dead have a continued existence, and may possess the ability to influence the fortune of t ...

. The

history of Christianity in Britain Christianity first appeared in Britain in antiquity, during the Roman period. The Roman Catholic Church was the dominant form of Christianity in Britain from the 6th century through to the Reformation period in the Middle Ages. The (Anglican) ...

begins at the latest in the 3rd century, when groups such as tradesmen, immigrants and soldiers introduced it to Roman Britain. Christianity seems to have stayed a minority religion throughout the 4th century, with evidence supporting the continuation of the

Romano-Celtic religion Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because there are no extant native records of their beliefs, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco- ...

during this time, and in the early 5th century there are records of British bishops asking for help from Gaul to deal with

Pelagianism Pelagianism is a Christian theological position that holds that the fall did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection. Pelagius (), an ascetic and philosopher from the British Isles, ta ...

. During the

Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain The settlement of Great Britain by Germanic peoples from continental Europe led to the development of an Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon cultural identity and a shared Germanic language—Old English—whose closest known relative is Old Frisian, s ...

in the 5th and 6th centuries, Anglo-Saxon forms of

Germanic paganism Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological dating, chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the Bri ...

were introduced which became the dominant religion in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. While Bede stated that Christianity was completely absent from these areas, evidence suggests the continuation of small communities. The process of

Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England The Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England was the process starting in the late 6th century by which population of England formerly adhering to the Anglo-Saxon paganism, Anglo-Saxon, and later Old Nordic religion, Nordic, forms of Germanic pag ...

began in the late 6th century with the

Gregorian mission The Gregorian missionJones "Gregorian Mission" ''Speculum'' p. 335 or Augustinian missionMcGowan "Introduction to the Corpus" ''Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature'' p. 17 was a Christian mission sent by Pope Pope Gregory I, Gregory the Great ...

, which was later followed by the

Hiberno-Scottish mission The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by Gaels, Gaelic Missionary, missionaries originating from Ireland that spread Celtic Christianity in Scotland, Wales, History of Anglo-Saxon England, England a ...

. The kings in England converted over the course of the 7th century, with Æthelberht being the first to adopt the new religion around 600 whilst

Arwald of Wihtwara Arwald (died 686 CE) was the last pagan Anglo-Saxon king and the last king of the Wihtwara, a people that inhabited the Isle of Wight. He was killed by Cædwalla of Wessex during an invasion of his kingdom, at which point the island was Christia ...

died as the last heathen Anglo-Saxon king during an invasion in 686 by

Cædwalla of Wessex Cædwalla (; 659 – 20 April 689) was the King of Wessex from approximately 685 until he abdicated in 688. His name is derived from the Welsh Cadwallon. He was exiled from Wessex as a youth and during this period gathered forces and attack ...

. Nordic forms of Germanic paganism closely related to the Anglo-Saxon traditional religion were introduced to regions of the British Isles in the 9th and 10th centuries by Scandinavian settlers who established the

Kingdom of the Isles The Kingdom of the Isles, also known as Sodor, was a Norse–Gaelic kingdom comprising the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries. The islands were known in Old Norse as the , or "Southern I ...

and the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...

. It is generally thought that the settlers in England converted within several generations, with

Erik Bloodaxe Eric Haraldsson ( , ; c.930−954), nicknamed Bloodaxe ( , ) and Brother-Slayer (), was a Norwegian king. He ruled as King of Norway from 932 to 934, and twice as King of Northumbria: from 947 to 948, and again from 952 to 954. Sources His ...

, the last potentially heathen king in England, dying in 954, however it was adopted more slowly in other parts of the region.

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

, for example, was not nominally Christianised until around 995 when, according to ''

Orkneyinga Saga The ''Orkneyinga saga'' (Old Norse: ; ; also called the ''History of the Earls of Orkney'' and ''Jarls' Saga'') is a narrative of the history of the Orkney and Shetland islands and their relationship with other local polities, particularly No ...

'',

Olaf Tryggvason Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken ( Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King ...

ordered that if the earl and his subjects did not convert, he would be killed and the islands ravaged. Some practices conceived of as heathen such as the worship of heathen gods and the leaving of offerings at trees, were made illegal in law codes in England beginning in the 640 and continuing into the 11th century, with punishments ranging from fines to execution. Other aspects of the pre-Christian culture blended with the incoming customs, however, such as the usage of Germanic words to refer to Christian concepts such as "

god In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

", "

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

" and "

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

", and the belief in beings such as dwarfs and

elves An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda''. In medieval Germanic-speakin ...

, which continued into the

modern period The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...

. Insular Christianity as it stood between the 6th and 8th centuries retained some idiosyncrasies in terms of liturgy and calendar, but it had been nominally united with Roman Christianity since at least the

Synod of Whitby The Synod of Whitby was a Christianity, Christian administrative gathering held in Northumbria in 664, wherein King Oswiu ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Roman Catholic, Ro ...

of 664. Still in the Anglo-Saxon period, the

archbishops of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop was Augustine ...

established a tradition of receiving their

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolitan bish ...

from Rome to symbolise the authority of the

pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

12th–16th centuries: High Middle Ages and the Reformation

The Catholic Church remained the dominant form of Western Christianity in Britain throughout the Middle Ages, but the (

)

became the independent established church in England and Wales in 1534 as a result of the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

.The History of the Church of England
. The Church of England. Retrieved 23 November 2008. It retains a

representation Representation may refer to: Law and politics *Representation (politics), political activities undertaken by elected representatives, as well as other theories ** Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a ...

in the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

and the

British monarch The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British con ...

is its

supreme governor The Supreme Governor of the Church of England is the titular head of the Church of England, a position which is vested in the British monarch.

. In Scotland, the

, established in a separate

Scottish Reformation The Scottish Reformation was the process whereby Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church, and established the Protestant Church of Scotland. It forms part of the wider European 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Fr ...

in the sixteenth century, is recognised as the

. It is not subject to state control and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to "maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government" upon his or her accession. The adherence to the

continued at various levels in different parts of Britain, especially among

recusants Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

and in the north of England, but most strongly in Ireland. This would expand in Great Britain, partly due to Irish immigration in the nineteenth century, the Catholic emancipation and the Restoration of the English hierarchy.

17th–19th centuries: Modernity

Particularly from the mid-seventeenth century, forms of Protestant nonconformity, including Congregationalists,

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

s and, later, Methodists, grew outside of the established church. The (Anglican)

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

was disestablished in 1920 and, as the (Anglican)

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

was disestablished in 1870 before the

partition of Ireland The Partition of Ireland () was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK) divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (the area today known as the R ...

, there is no established church in Northern Ireland. The

Jews in England The history of the Jews in England can be traced to at least 750 CE through the Canonical Exceptions of Echbright, published by the Archbishop of York, although it is likely that there had been some History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Jewi ...

were expelled in 1290, readmitted in the 1650s and only

emancipated Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfran ...

in the 19th century. British Jews had numbered fewer than 10,000 in 1800 but around 120,000 after 1881 when

Russian Jews The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

settled permanently in Britain.

20th–21st centuries: Secularisation and multiculturalism

The substantial immigration to the United Kingdom after World War II has contributed to the growth of foreign faiths, especially of

and

Buddhism in the United Kingdom Buddhism is the Religion in the United Kingdom, fifth-largest religious group in the United Kingdom. The 2021 United Kingdom census recorded just under 290,000 Buddhists, or about 0.4% of the total population, with the largest number of Budd ...

experienced growth partly due to immigration and partly due to conversion (especially when including

Secular Buddhism Secular Buddhism, also called agnostic Buddhism and naturalistic Buddhism, is a modern, western movement within Buddhism that leans toward an "exclusive humanism" that rejects "superhuman agencies and supernatural processes" and religious ...

). As elsewhere in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

, religious demographics have become part of the discourse on

multiculturalism Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''Pluralism (political theory), ethnic'' or cultura ...

, with Britain variously described as a

post-Christian Postchristianity is the situation in which Christianity is no longer the dominant civil religion of a society but has gradually assumed values, culture, and worldviews that are not necessarily Christian. Post-Christian tends to refer to the loss ...

society, as "multi-faith", or as secularised. Scholars have suggested multiple possible reasons for the decline, but have not agreed on their relative importance. Martin Wellings lays out the "classical model" of

secularisation In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...

, while noting that it has been challenged by some scholars. The familiar starting-point, a classical model of secularisation, argues that religious faith becomes less plausible and religious practice more difficult in advanced industrial and urbanised societies. The breakdown or disruption of traditional communities and norms of behaviour; the spread of a scientific world-view diminishing the scope of the supernatural and the role of God; increasing material affluence promoting self-reliance and this-worldly optimism; and greater awareness and toleration of different creeds and ideas, encouraging religious pluralism and eviscerating commitment to a particular faith, all form components of the case for secularisation. Applied to the British churches in general by Steve Bruce and to Methodism in particular by Robert Currie, this model traces decline back to the Victorian era and charts in the twentieth century "a steady ebbing of the sea of faith". Since 2018 the United Kingdom has been classified by some as a secularised,

society that is predominantly

irreligious Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, rationa ...

. Surveys since 2018 have indicated that a large majority of Britons do not believe in

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, an

afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...

, or regularly attend religious services. Since 2019 most surveys have also pointed to

agnosticism Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer t ...

nontheism Nontheism or non-theism is a range of both religious and non-religious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in the existence of God or gods. Nontheism has generally been used to describe apathy or silence towards the subjec ...

, or atheistic beliefs being shared by a majority of Britons. A 2020 ''

YouGov YouGov plc is a international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm headquartered in the UK with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. History 2000–2010 Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim ...

'' poll found that 27% of Britions believed in a "a god" and 16% believed in another form of higher power.

Statistics

Religious affiliations

In the 2021–22 census, Christianity was the largest religion (at 46.5% of the population), followed by no religion (37.8%), Islam (6.0%), and a further 5.9% who did not state a religion. Although there was no UK-wide data in the 2001 or the 2011 census on adherence to individual Christian denominations, since they are asked only in the Scottish and in the Northern Irish Censuses, using the same principle as applied in the 2001 census, a survey carried out in the end of 2008 by Ipsos MORI and based on a scientifically robust sample, found the population of England and Wales to be 47.0% Anglican, 9.6% Catholic and 8.7% other Christians; 4.8% were Muslim, 3.4% were members of other religions. 5.3% were Agnostics, 6.8% were Atheists and 15.0% were not sure about their religious affiliation or refused to answer to the question. The 2009 British Social Attitudes Survey, which covers Great Britain but not Northern Ireland, indicated that over 50 per cent would self-classify as not religious at all, 19.9 per cent were part of the Church of England, 9.3% non-denominational Christian, 8.6%

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, 2.2% Presbyterian/Church of Scotland, 1.3% Methodist, 0.53%

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

, 1.17% other Protestant, 0.23%

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

Congregational Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christianity, Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice Congregationalist polity, congregational ...

, 0.06% Free Presbyterian, 0.03%

Brethren Christian Brethren is a name adopted by a wide range of mainly Christian religious groups throughout history. The largest movement is Anabaptist. Groups from the Middle Ages * Apostolic Brethren (13th century), mendicant order similar to the Franciscans * K ...

and 0.41% other Christian. In a 2016 survey conducted by BSA (British Social Attitudes) on religious affiliation; 53% of respondents indicated ' no religion' and 41% indicated they were

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, while 6% affiliated with non-Christian religions (

etc.)

Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...

Eurobarometer Eurobarometer is a series of public opinion statistical survey, surveys conducted regularly on behalf of the European Commission and other Institutions of the European Union, EU institutions since 1974. These surveys address a wide variety of to ...

survey in December 2018 found that 53.6% of UK's population is Christian, while 6.2% belong to other religions and 40.2% are atheists (30.3% Agnostics, 9.9% Anti-theists). The May 2019 Special Eurobarometer found that 50% were Christians (14% Protestants, 13% Catholics, 7% Orthodox and 16% other Christians), 37% atheist (9% anti-theists, 28% 'nonbelievers and agnostics'), 5% Muslims (3% Sunnis, 1% Shias, 1% other Muslims), 1% Sikhs, 1% Hindus, fewer than 1% Jews, fewer than 1% Buddhists, 4% other religions, 1% didn't know, and 1% refused to answer. The same year

Pew Research center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...

estimated that 73% of people in UK were Christian while 23% were unaffiliated and 4% were other religion or did not know. The wording of the question affects the outcome of polls as is apparent when comparing the results of the Scottish census with that of the English and Welsh census. An

ICM ICM may refer to: Organizations * Irish Church Missions, an Anglican mission * Institut du Cerveau, the Paris Brain Institute, a research center * Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, University of Warsaw * Interna ...

poll for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' in 2006 asked the question "Which religion do you yourself belong to?" with a response of 64% stating "Christian" and 26% stating "none". In the same survey, 63% claimed they are not religious with just 33% claiming they are. Retrieved on 7 May 2012 This suggests that the religious UK population identify themselves as having Christian beliefs, but maybe not as active "church-goers". Religions other than Christianity, such as Islam,

, Sikhism and Judaism, have established a presence in the United Kingdom, both through

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

and by attracting converts. Others that have done so include the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

Modern paganism Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the Paganism, beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some comm ...

, and the

Rastafari movement Rastafari is an Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of the movement and much ...

-which has 5000 followers in the UK as of a 2001 census. The European Social Survey, carried out between 2014 and 2016, found that 70% of people between 16 and 29 were not religious.

Historical trends since 1900

Religious affiliation in Great Britain over time

*Sources: Based on Historical data/information, Religious Data since 1980s, Eurobarometer 2015 Data, and 2001 & 2011 National U.K. Census. Specifications: Catholics include

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

s (8%) and

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...

s (5%), Protestants include the majority of Anglicans (Traditional Anglicanism, Anglican Evangelical versions and part of Anglo-Catholics), Mainline Protestant Churches like Methodists or Presbyterians (7%) and Evangelical Protestants (4%), Other Christians historically were British Restoriationist Churches inspired by Mainline Protestant denominations (known as ''Free Churches''), today the most numerous Christian minorities are

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church) (0.3%), and Jehovah's Witnesses (0.2%), also including Orthodox Christianity. Non-Religious since 2000s data were an adjusted by the specified non-religious and most of the non-response per cent. Other religions:

Islam in the United Kingdom Islam is the second-largest religion in the United Kingdom, religion in the United Kingdom, with results from the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census recording just under four million Muslims, or 6.0% of the total population in the Unite ...

British Jews British Jews (often referred to collectively as British Jewry or Anglo-Jewry) are British citizens who are Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021. History The fir ...

Hinduism in the United Kingdom Hinduism is the Religion in the United Kingdom, third-largest religious group in the United Kingdom, after Christianity in the United Kingdom, Christianity and Islam in the United Kingdom, Islam; the religion is followed by over one million pe ...

Sikhism in the United Kingdom British Sikhs number over 535,000 people and account for 0.8% of the British population as of 2021, forming the United Kingdom's Religion in the United Kingdom, fourth-largest religious group. According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, British ...

Censuses

The statistics for current religion (not religion of upbringing where also asked) from the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

censuses are set out in the tables below. Christianity in the 2011 census

Surveys

Religious affiliations of UK citizens are recorded by regular surveys, the four major ones being the UK Census, the

Labour Force Survey Labour Force Surveys are statistical surveys conducted in a number of countries designed to capture data about the labour market. All European Union member states are required to conduct a Labour Force Survey annually. Labour Force Surveys are als ...

, the British Social Attitudes survey and the

European Social Survey The European Social Survey (ESS) is a social scientific endeavour to map the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of the various populations in Europe. The average duration of an ESS interview is 60 minutes in British English and data is deposi ...

. The different questions asked by these surveys produced different results: *The census for England and Wales asked the question "What is your religion?". In 2001 14.81% and in 2011 around a quarter (25.1%) of the population said they had "none" and 70% stated they were Christian. *The census for Scotland asked the question "What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?".Tom Geoghegan
"Census: How religious is the UK?"
, ''BBC News Magazine'', 21 February 2011, retrieved 31 January 2011. In 2001 27.55% and in 2011 36.7% selected "none" and 53.8% stated they were Christian. *The Labour Force Survey asked the question "What is your religion even if you are not currently practising?" with a response of 15.7% selecting "no religion" in 2004 and 22.4% selecting "no religion" in 2010. *The British Social Attitudes survey asked the question "Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?" with 53% selecting "no religion" in 2016. *The European Social Survey asked the question "Which religion or denomination do you belong to at present?" with 50.54% of respondents selecting "no religion" in 2002 and 52.68% selecting "no religion" in 2008. Other surveys: *In 1983, in a large public opinion survey, almost a third of Britons said they believed in Hell and the Devil. In Northern Ireland, 91 per cent of people said they believed in sin. This was reported in ''The Observer'' on 28 February 1983. *In 2018, according to a study jointly conducted by

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

's St Mary's University's Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society and the

Institut Catholique de Paris The Institut catholique de Paris (, abbr. ICP), known in English as the Catholic University of Paris (and in Latin as ''Universitas catholica Parisiensis''), is a private university located in Paris, France. History: 1875–present The Institut ...

, and based on data from the European Social Survey 2014–2016 collected on a sample of 560, among 16 to 29 years-old British people 21% were Christians (10% Catholic, 7% Anglican, 2% other Protestant and 2% other Christian), 6% were Muslims, 3% were of other religions, and 70% were not religious. The data was obtained from two questions, one asking "Do you consider yourself as belonging to any particular religion or denomination?" to the full sample and the other one asking "Which one?" to the sample who replied with "Yes". The British Social Attitudes surveys and the European Social Surveys are fielded to adult individuals. In contrast, the United Kingdom Census and the Labour Force Surveys are household surveys; the respondent completes the questionnaire on behalf of each member of the household, including children, as well as for themselves. The 2010 Labour Force Survey claimed that 54% of children aged from birth to four years were Christian, rising to 59% for children aged between 5 and 9 and 65% for children aged between 10 and 14. The inclusion of children who are part of religious families influences the results of the polls. Other major polls agree with the British Social Attitudes surveys and the European Social Surveys, with a

survey fielded in February 2012 indicating that 43% of respondents claimed to belong to a religion and 76% claimed they were not very religious or not religious at all. Retrieved on 12 March 2012. An Ipsos MORI survey fielded in August 2003 indicated that 18% of respondents claimed to be "a practising member of an organised religion" and 25% claimed "I am a non-practising member of an organised religion". A 2015 study estimated some 25,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background, most of whom belong to an evangelical or Pentecostal community.

Religious affiliation (%) in England, Scotland and Wales according to the Annual Population Survey 2007-2016

The

Annual Population Survey The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a combined statistical survey of households in Great Britain which is conducted quarterly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It combines results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the English ...

is a combined

statistical survey Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey d ...

households A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is impo ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

which is conducted quarterly by the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

and combines results from the

and the English, Welsh and Scottish Labour Force Survey, gathers information about the religious affiliation, reported in the table below. The change in the religious affiliation between the 2010 APS and the 2011 APS is due to a question change, which significantly influenced the final results.

Attendance

Society in the United Kingdom is markedly more secular than it was in the past and the number of churchgoers fell over the second half of the 20th century. Already in the mid-20th century, church attendance in Britain was relatively low. A Mass-Observation survey conducted in 1948 and 1949 found only 15% of Brittons attended church. The English Church survey found that attendance was 12% in 1979, 10% in 1989, and 7.5% in 1998. The Ipsos MORI poll in 2003 reported that 18% were "a practising member of an organised religion". The Tearfund Survey in 2007 found that only 7% of the population considered themselves as practising Christians. Sometimes 10% attended church weekly and two-thirds had not gone to church in the past year. The Tearfund Survey also found that two-thirds of UK adults (66%) or 32.2 million people had no connection with the Church at present (nor with another religion). These people were evenly divided between those who have been in the past but have since left (16 million) and those who have never been in their lives (16.2 million). A survey in 2002 found Christmas attendance at Anglican churches in England varied between 10.19% of the population in the

diocese of Hereford The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England, and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales. The cathedral i ...

, down to just 2.16% in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. Church attendance at

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

in some dioceses was up to three times the average for the rest of the year. Overall church attendance at Christmas has been steadily increasing in recent years; a 2005 poll found that 43 per cent expected to attend a church service over the Christmas period, in comparison with 39% and 33% for corresponding polls taken in 2003 and 2001 respectively. A December 2007 report by Christian Research showed that the services of the Catholic Church had become the best-attended services of Christian denominations in England, with average attendance at Sunday Mass of 861,000, compared to 852,000 attending Anglican services. Attendance at Anglican services had declined by 20% between 2000 and 2006, while attendance at Catholic services, boosted by large-scale immigration from Poland and Lithuania, had declined by only 13%. In Scotland, attendance at Church of Scotland services declined by 19% and attendance at Catholic services fell by 25%. British Social Attitudes Surveys have shown the proportion of those in Great Britain who consider they "belong to" Christianity to have fallen from 66% in 1983 to 43% in 2009. In 2012 about 6% of the population of the United Kingdom regularly attended church, with the average age of attendees being 51; in contrast, in 1980, 11% had regularly attended, with an average age of 37. It is predicted that by 2020 attendance will be around 4%, with an average age of 56. This decline in church attendance has forced many churches to close down across the United Kingdom, with the Church of England alone closing 1,500 churches between 1969 and 2002. Their fates include dereliction, demolition, and residential, artistic and commercial conversion. In October 2014 weekly attendance at Church of England services dropped below 1 million for the first time. At Christmas 2014, 2.4 million attended. For that year baptisms were 130,000, down 12% since 2004; marriages were 50,000, down 19%; and funerals 146,000, down 29%. The Church estimated that about 1% of churchgoers were lost to death each year; the Church's age profile suggested that attendances would continue to decline. One study showed that in 2004 at least 930,000 Muslims attended a mosque at least once a week, just outnumbering the 916,000 regular churchgoers in the Church of England. Muslim sources claim the number of practising Muslims is underestimated as nearly all of them pray at home.

Belief

There is a disparity between the figures for those identifying themselves with a particular religion and for those proclaiming a belief in a god: *In a 2011 YouGov poll, 34% of UK citizens said they believed in a

or gods. Retrieved on 7 May 2012 *A

opinion poll in 2010 reported that 37% of UK citizens "believed there is a god", 33% believe there is "some sort of spirit or life force" and 25% answered "I don't believe there is any sort of spirit, god or life force". *The 2008 European Social Survey suggested that 46.94% of UK citizens never prayed and 18.96% prayed daily. *A survey in 2007 suggested that 42% of adults resident in the United Kingdom prayed, with one in six praying daily.

Jedi census phenomenon

In the 2001 census, 390,127 individuals (0.7 per cent of total respondents) in England and Wales self-identified as followers of the

Jedi Jedi (), Jedi Knights, or collectively the Jedi Order are fictional characters, and often protagonists, featured in many works within the '' Star Wars'' franchise. Working symbiotically alongside the Galactic Republic, the Jedi Order is depic ...

faith. This

Jedi census phenomenon In some national population censuses which include a question on religious identity, media report numerous respondents giving their religion as Jedi (or "Jedi Knight") after the quasi-religious order in the ''Star Wars'' science fiction franch ...

followed an internet campaign that claimed, incorrectly, that the Jedi belief system would receive official government recognition as a religion if it received enough support in the census. An email in support of the campaign, quoted by BBC News, invited people to "do it because you love Star Wars ... or just to annoy people". The Office for National Statistics revealed the total figure in a press release entitled "390,000 Jedi there are".

Christianity

Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1,400 years. The United Kingdom was formed by the union of previously autonomous states in 1707, and consequently most of the largest religious groups do not have UK-wide organisational structures. While some groups have separate structures for the individual countries of the United Kingdom, others have a single structure covering England and Wales or Great Britain. Similarly, due to the relatively recent creation of

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

in 1921, most major religious groups in Northern Ireland are organised on an all-Ireland basis.

Protestantism

Anglicanism

The Church of England is the established church in England. Its most senior bishops sit in the national parliament and the Monarch is its supreme governor. It is also the "mother church" of the worldwide

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

. The Church of England separated from the

in 1534 and became the established church by Parliament in the

Act of Supremacy The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the E ...

, beginning a series of events known as the

. Historically it has been the predominant Christian denomination in England and Wales, in terms of both influence and number of adherents. The

has 219,788 members in Northern Ireland where they make up 11.6% of the population across 418 congregations. The Scottish Episcopal Church, which is part of the Anglican Communion (but not a "daughter church" of the Church of England), dates from the final establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1690, when it split from the Church of Scotland. In the 1920s, the Church in Wales became disestablished and independent from the Church of England, but remains in the Anglican Communion. During the years 2012 to 2014 the number of members of the Church of England dropped by around 1.7 million. In 2018, 12% of the population of Great Britain identify as Anglicans, a sharp decline from 1983 when 40% of the population identified as Anglicans.

Baptists

The

Baptist Union of Great Britain Baptists Together, formally the Baptist Union of Great Britain, is a Baptists, Baptist Christian denomination in England and Wales. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance and Churches Together in England. The headquarters is in Didc ...

, despite its name, covers just England and Wales. There is a separate

Baptist Union of Scotland The Baptist Union of Scotland is a Baptist Christian denomination in Scotland. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. The headquarters is north of the M8 in the Port Dundas areas of Glasgow. History From the 1650s to 1869 Baptists f ...

. The Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland is an all-Ireland organisation with 16,051 members in Northern Ireland (0.8% of the population) across 94 congregations. Other Baptist associations also exist in England, such as the Grace Baptist association and the Gospel Standard Baptists.

Charismatics and Pentecostalism

Assemblies of God in Great Britain The Assemblies of God in Great Britain (AoG GB) is a Pentecostal Christian denomination in Great Britain. It is affiliated with the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. Its headquarters are in Manchester, England. History The Assemblies of God in ...

are part of the

World Assemblies of God Fellowship The World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF), commonly known as the Assemblies of God (AG), is a global cooperative body or communion of over 170 Pentecostal denominations that was established on August 15, 1989. The WAGF was created to provi ...

with over 600 churches in Great Britain.

Assemblies of God Ireland Christian Churches Ireland is a Pentecostal Christian denomination located in Ireland and a part of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. History Christian Churches Ireland was formed on October 22, 2005, when the Irish Region of the Assembl ...

cover the whole of the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland. The Apostolic Church commenced in the early part of the 20th century in South Wales and now has over 110 churches across the United Kingdom. Elim Pentecostal Church had over 500 churches across the United Kingdom. There is also a growing number of independent,

charismatic churches () is a personal quality of magnetic charm, persuasion, or appeal. In the fields of sociology and political science, psychology, and management, the term ''charismatic'' describes a type of leadership. In Christian theology Christian t ...

that encourage Pentecostal practices as part of their worship. These are broadly grouped together as the

British New Church Movement The British New Church Movement (BNCM) is a neocharismatic evangelical Christian movement. Its origin is associated with the Charismatic Movement of the 1960s, although it both predates it and has an agenda that goes beyond it. It was originally kn ...

and could number up to 400,000 members. The phenomenon of immigrant churches and congregations that began with the arrival of the HMT ''Empire Windrush'' from the West Indies in 1948 stands as a unique trend. West Indian congregations that started from this time include the Church of God, New Testament Assembly and New Testament Church of God. Africans began to arrive in the early 1980s and established their own congregations. Foremost among these are

Matthew Ashimolowo Matthew Ashimolowo (born 17 March 1952) is a Nigerian Clergy, clergyman, the senior pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) in London. His ''Winning Ways'' programme is aired daily on Premier Christian Radio, Premier Radio (Lond ...

from Nigeria and his

Kingsway International Christian Centre Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) is based in Kent, England and was established in 1992 by Matthew Ashimolowo with 200 adults and 100 children. It currently has up to 12,000 people in attendance at the main church every Sunday. The ...

in London that may be the largest church in Western Europe.

Methodism

The Methodist movement traces its origin to

John Wesley John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...

and the

evangelical revival The First Great Awakening, sometimes Great Awakening or the Evangelical Revival, was a series of Christian revivals that swept United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Britain and its Thirteen Colonies, thirteen North American colonies in the ...

in the 18th century. The

British Methodist Church The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestantism, Protestant List of Christian denominations, Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodism, Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council. M ...

, which has congregations throughout the nation, has around 188,000 members,Piggot, A. (June 2017)
Statistics for Mission
. The Methodist Conference. Accessed 20 October 2018. and 4,110 churches (), though only around 3,000 members in 50 congregations are in Scotland. In the 1960s, the Methodist Church made ecumenical overtures to the Church of England, aimed at church unity. Formally, these failed when they were rejected by the Church of England's General Synod in 1972. However, conversations and co-operation continued, leading on 1 November 2003 to the signing of a covenant between the two churches. The

Methodist Church in Ireland The Methodist Church in Ireland () is a Wesleyan Methodist church that operates across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on an all-Ireland basis. It is the fourth-largest Christian denomination in Northern Ireland. The Irish Met ...

covers the whole of the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland where it is the fourth-largest denomination with 133 congregations. The

Fellowship of Independent Methodist Churches The Fellowship of Independent Methodist Churches (FIMC) is a Methodist denomination aligned with the conservative holiness movement that is based in the British Isles, with missions around the world. The history of the Fellowship of Independent Met ...

has 16 churches in Northern Ireland. Combined, these two Methodist denominations have 45,881 members (2.4% of Northern Ireland's population) Other Methodist denominations in Britain include

the Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

, founded in 1865; the

Free Methodist Church The Free Methodist Church (FMC) is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement, based in the United States. It is Evangelicalism, evangelical in nature and is Wesleyan theology, Wesleyan–Arminian in theology. The Free Met ...

, a

holiness Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...

church; and the

Church of the Nazarene The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism during the late 19th century. The denomination has its headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas. and it ...

Presbyterianism and Congregationalism

The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by

John Knox John Knox ( – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish minister, Reformed theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country's Reformation. He was the founder of the Church of Scotland. Born in Giffordgate, a street in Haddington, East Lot ...

, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the

and established itself as a church in the Reformed tradition. The church is nominally

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

with a

system of church government. The annual meeting of its general assembly is chaired by the

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every year. After chairing the Ass ...

. The Church of Scotland celebrates two

sacraments A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of ...

Baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

and the

Lord's Supper The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by J ...

, as well as five other

rite Rite may refer to: Religion * Ritual, an established ceremonious act * Rite (Christianity), sacred rituals in the Christian religion * Ritual family, Christian liturgical traditions; often also called ''liturgical rites'' * Catholic particular ch ...

s, such as

Confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...

and

Matrimony Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

. The church adheres to the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

and the

Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Confession of Faith, or simply the Westminster Confession, is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it becam ...

, and is a member of the

World Communion of Reformed Churches The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Reformed (Calvinist) churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations (227 members and three associate or affiliate members) in 108 countries, together claiming ...

. In Northern Ireland the Presbyterian Church of Ireland is the largest single Protestant denomination with 440 congregations across the region. The Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland has 31 congregations in Northern Ireland, with the first Presbytery being formed in Antrim in 1725. Other smaller denominations include the Reformed Presbyterian Church (34 congregations) and the

Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster :''Distinct from Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)'' The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster is a Calvinist denomination founded by Ian Paisley in 1951. Doctrinally, the church describes itself as Fundam ...

(57 congregations). Combined these presbyterian denominations account for 329,223 persons (17.3% of Northern Ireland's population). In addition there are 20 churches in Northern Ireland affiliated with the

Congregational Union of Ireland The Congregational Union of Ireland is strongly associated with the Puritans and Oliver Cromwell. The Irish Congregational Church was formed in 1829. In 1899 it absorbed the Irish Evangelical Society. By 1927 there were about 10,000 members in Irel ...

which collectively have 2,656 members. The

Presbyterian Church of Wales The Presbyterian Church of Wales (), also known as the Calvinistic Methodist Church (), is a denomination of Protestant Christianity based in Wales. The Calvinistic Methodist movement has its origins in the 18th-century Welsh Methodist revival ...

seceded from the Church of England in 1811 and formally formed itself into a separate body in 1823. With its origins in the 16th century,

English Presbyterianism Presbyterianism in England is practised by followers of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism who practise the Presbyterian form of church government. Dating in England as a movement from 1588, it is distinct from Continental and Scotti ...

, was initially contained with the Church of England until the

Great Ejection The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Several thousand Puritan ministers were forced out of their positions in the Church of England following the Restoration of Charles II. It was a consequence (not necessarily ...

of 1662. During the 18th century there were few Presbyterian congregations in England until they were revived by Scots who had moved south. In time, this led to the creation of

Presbyterian Church of England The Presbyterian Church of England was a late-19th-century and 20th-century Presbyterianism, Presbyterian denomination in England. The church's origins lay in the 1876 merger of the English congregations of the chiefly Scottish United Presbyterian ...

in 1876. Its successor, the

(URC), a union of Presbyterian and Congregational churches, consists of about 1383 congregations in England, Scotland and Wales. There are about 600

Congregational church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

es in the United Kingdom. In England there are three main groups, the Congregational Federation, the

Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches The Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches (EFCC) is an association of around 100 independent local churches in the United Kingdom, each practising congregationalist church governance. The EFCC was founded in 1967 by those evangelica ...

, and about 100 Congregational churches that are loosely federated with other congregations in the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, or are unaffiliated. In Scotland the churches are mostly members of the Congregational Federation and in Wales which traditionally has a larger number of Congregationalists, most are members of the

Union of Welsh Independents The Union of Welsh Independents () is a Reformed church, Reformed Congregationalist denomination in Wales. History Welsh Congregational churches or Independent (religion), Independents stand in the Puritan tradition. The first Congregational ...

Quakers

The

Britain Yearly Meeting The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain, also known as Britain Yearly Meeting (and, until 1995, London Yearly Meeting), is a Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England, Scotland, ...

is the umbrella body for the Religious Society of Friends (

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

) in Great Britain, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man. It has 14,260 adult members. Northern Ireland comes under the umbrella of the

Ireland Yearly Meeting The Ireland Yearly Meeting is the umbrella body for the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland. It is one of many Yearly Meetings (YMs) of Friends around the world. A notable aspect of the Ireland YM is that it encompasses meetings with widely d ...

Catholicism

The

has separate national organisations for England, Wales, and Scotland, which means there is no single hierarchy for the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom. There is, however, a single

apostolic nuncio to Great Britain The Apostolic Nunciature to Great Britain is the diplomatic office of the Holy See in Great Britain. It is headed by the nuncio, Apostolic Nuncio, who has the rank of an ambassador (officially, the ''Apostolic Nuncio to the Court of St. James's ...

, presently Archbishop

Miguel Maury Buendía Miguel Maury Buendía (born 19 November 1955) is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church who has spent his career in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. An archbishop since 2008, he has been apostolic nuncio to several countries. On 13 A ...

. Catholicism is the second largest denomination in England and Wales, with around five million members, mainly in England. Catholicism is also Scotland's second largest Christian denomination, representing a fifth of the population. Catholicism is the largest single denomination of Christianity in Northern Ireland and in the 2021 census, for the first time since the establishment of the state, the Catholic Church attained a plurality (42.3%) of the Northern Irish population. The apostolic nuncio to the whole of Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

) is

Luis Mariano Montemayor Luis Mariano Montemayor (born 16 March 1956) is an Argentinian prelate of the Catholic Church who has worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See since 1991. He began to serve in his present position as Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland in Febr ...

. Members of the

Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of ...

in the United Kingdom are served by their own clergy and do not belong to the

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

dioceses but are still in full communion with the

Bishop of Rome The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

. The number of Catholics peaked in the 1960s, but has been on a gradual decline ever since, except in Northern Ireland where currently (2024) there are more Catholics than Protestants. In 2018, 7% of the population identified as Catholics. A 2024

poll of England and Wales commissioned by the

Bible Society A Bible society is a non-profit organization, usually nondenominational in makeup, devoted to translating, publishing, and distributing the Bible at affordable prices. In recent years they also are increasingly involved in advocating its credi ...

entitled ''The Quiet Revival'' said that since the one earlier poll on the subject in 2018, Catholics had increased as a share of churchgoers from 23% to 31%, and regular church attendance (monthly or greater) of all denominations together had increased by 50%, from 8% of the population to 12%, with most of the increase among those aged 18–34. However, official attendance estimates for both the Catholic Church and the Church of England say that despite recovering since the Covid pandemic, weekly church attendance has fallen significantly since 2019.

Orthodoxy

Orthodox Christianity is a relatively minor faith in the United Kingdom when compared to

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

and

; most Orthodox churches cater to immigrants from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and to a lesser extent,

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

and

South East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. It is a relatively minor faith among

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, w ...

themselves. In 2013 there were roughly 464,000 members of Orthodox churches in the UK.

Eastern Orthodoxy

Adherents of

Eastern Orthodox Christianity Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

in the United Kingdom are traditionally organised in accordance with patrimonial ecclesiastical jurisdictions. The

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

has a Diocese of Sourozh, which covers Great Britain and Ireland, and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia also has a diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe. The

Greek Orthodox Church Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Christianity in Greece, Greek Christianity, Antiochian Greek Christians, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christian ...

is represented by the

Ecumenical Patriarchate The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen Autocephaly, autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. ...

, which has established the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, that covers England, Wales, Scotland and the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Ireland that covers Ireland. The

Patriarchate of Antioch The Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the bishop of Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey). As the traditional "overseer" (, , from which the word ''bishop'' is derived) of the first gentile Christian community, the position has ...

has several parishes and missions within the Diocese of the British Isles and Ireland. Other Eastern Orthodox Churches represented in the United Kingdom include the

Georgian Orthodox Church The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonl ...

, the

Romanian Orthodox Church The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the East ...

, the

Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church (), legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria (), is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox jurisdiction based in Bulgaria. It is the first medieval recognised patriarchate outside the Pentarchy and t ...

, and the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church#Constit ...

, the

Albanian Orthodox Church The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania (), commonly known as the Albanian Orthodox Church or the Orthodox Church of Albania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It declared its autocephaly in 1922 through its Congress of 1922, a ...

Oriental Orthodoxy

Adherents of

Oriental Orthodox Christianity The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 50 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches adhere to the Nicene Christian tradition. Oriental Orthodoxy is ...

in the United Kingdom are also traditionally organised in accordance with their patrimonial ecclesiastical jurisdictions, each community having its own parishes and priests. The

Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apo ...

has two regional Dioceses in the United Kingdom: the Diocese of Ireland, Scotland,

North East England North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County DurhamNorthumberland, , Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. ...

, and the Diocese of the Midlands. Other Oriental Orthodox Churches represented in the United Kingdom include the

Syriac Orthodox Church The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian denomination, denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The ch ...

, the

Armenian Apostolic Church The Armenian Apostolic Church () is the Autocephaly, autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christianity, Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Armenian Catholic ...

, the

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches with its headquarters in Asmara, Eritrea. It was given autocephaly by Shenouda III of Alexandria, pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, after Eritrea gained its in ...

and the

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

. The homegrown

British Orthodox Church The British Orthodox Church (BOC), formerly the Orthodox Church of the British Isles, is an independent church, having its roots in Oriental Orthodoxy. The British Orthodox Church has not been in communion with any of the Oriental Orthodox ch ...

and Irish Orthodox Church, although both minor, are also represented.

Other Trinitarian denominations

Other denominations and groups include the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the

Seventh Day Baptists Seventh Day Baptists are Baptists who observe the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as a holy day to God. They adopt a theology common to Baptists, profess the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice, perform the conscious b ...

, the

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where it originated from Anglica ...

, and

Newfrontiers Newfrontiers (previously New Frontiers International) is a neo-charismatic church network of evangelical, charismatic churches founded by Terry Virgo. It forms part of the British New Church Movement, which began in the late 1950s and 1960s ...

Non-Trinitarian denominations

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

The first missionaries from the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian restorationist Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded dur ...

to proselytise in the British Isles arrived in 1837. By 1900 as many as 100,000 converts had joined the faith, but most of these early members soon emigrated to the United States to join the main body of the church. From the 1950s emigration to the United States began to be discouraged and local congregations grew more rapidly. Today the church claims just over 186,000 members across the United Kingdom, in over 330 local congregations, known as '

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

' or '

branches A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includi ...

'. The church also maintains two

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

in England, the first opening in the London area in 1958, and the second completed in 1998 in Preston and known as the

Preston England Temple The Preston England Temple is the 52nd operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The temple is located in the town of Chorley, south of Preston, in Lancashire, England. The intent to build the temple was ...

. Preston is also the site of the first preaching by LDS missionaries in 1837, and is home to the oldest continually existing Latter Day Saint congregation anywhere in the world. Restored 1994–2000, the

Gadfield Elm Chapel The Gadfield Elm Chapel near the village of Pendock in Worcestershire, England, is the oldest surviving chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). History The structure was built in 1836 as a religious meeting h ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

is the oldest extant chapel of the LDS Church.

Other non-Trinitarian denominations

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...

had 137,631 "publishers" (a term referring to members actively involved in preaching) in the United Kingdom in 2015. The

Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word and ...

is also represented in the UK. The

General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC or colloquially British Unitarians) is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Ire ...

is the

umbrella organisation An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and iden ...

for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. The

Unitarian Christian Association The Unitarian Christian Association (UCA) is a fellowship of Christians who feel an affinity with traditional Unitarianism and Free Christianity. The association is based in the United Kingdom and is an affiliated society of the General Assembly ...

was formed in 1991. There are an estimated 18,000

Christadelphians The Christadelphians () are a Restorationism, restorationist and Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Biblical unitarianism, (Biblical Unitarian) Christian denomination. The name means 'brothers and sisters in Christ',"The Christadelphians, or breth ...

in the UK.

Islam

Estimates in 2009 suggested a total of about 2.4 million Muslims over all the United Kingdom. Muslims in the United Kingdom tend to live around the major population centers such as Cardiff and London. The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom live in England and Wales: of 1,591,126 Muslims recorded at the 2001 Census, 1,546,626 were living in England and Wales, where they form 3 per cent of the population; 42,557 were living in Scotland, forming 0.8 per cent of the population; and 1,943 were living in Northern Ireland. Between 2001 and 2009 the Muslim population increased roughly 10 times faster than the rest of society. Most Muslim immigrants to the United Kingdom came from

former colonies A former is an object, such as a template, gauge or cutting die, which is used to form something such as a boat's hull. Typically, a former gives shape to a structure that may have complex curvature. A former may become an integral part of the ...

. The biggest groups of Muslims are of

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

and

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

origins, with the remainder coming from Muslim-dominated areas such as

Southwest Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenia ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. During the 18th century, ''

lascar A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland or other lands east of the Cape of Good Hope who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the mid-20th centur ...

s'' (sailors) who worked for the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

settled in port towns with local wives. These numbered only 24,037 in 1891 but 51,616 on the eve of World War I. Naval cooks also came from what is now the

Sylhet Division Sylhet Division () is a northeastern Divisions of Bangladesh, division of Bangladesh, renowned for its lush tea gardens, rolling hills and vibrant cultural heritage. Covering an area of approximately 12,298 square kilometres, it is bordered by t ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. From the 1950s onwards, the growing Muslim population has led to a number of notable Mosques being established, including

East London Mosque The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe accomm ...

London Central Mosque The London Central Mosque (also known as the Regent's Park Mosque) is an Islamic place of worship located on the edge of Regent's Park in central London. Design and location It was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, completed in 1977, and ...

Manchester Central Mosque Manchester Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre (also known as “Victoria Park Mosque”) is a mosque in Manchester, England. Sometimes referred to as Jamia Mosque, it is situated in the middle of Victoria Park, Manchester close to the Cu ...

, London Markaz,

Baitul Futuh The Baitul Futuh (English: ''House of Victories'') is a mosque complex of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, situated in Morden, London. It is one of the largest mosque complexes in Europe. Completed in 2003 at a cost of £15 million, entirely f ...

of the

Ahmadiyya Ahmadiyya, officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ), is an Islamic messianic movement originating in British India in the late 19th century. It was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), who said he had been divinely appointed a ...

Muslim Community and

Cambridge Central Mosque The Cambridge Central Mosque is the first purpose-built mosque within the city of Cambridge, England. It opened to the public on 24 April 2019. The Mosque is a prominent Islamic centre located on Mill Road in the Romsey area of Cambridge. The ...

. According to Kevin Brice, a researcher at the

University of Wales, Trinity Saint David The University of Wales Trinity Saint David () is a public university with three main campuses in South West Wales, in Carmarthen, Lampeter and Swansea, a fourth campus in London, and learning centres in Cardiff, and Birmingham. The universit ...

, thousands convert to Islam annually and there are approximately 100,000 converts to Islam in Britain, where they run two mosques. According to a Labour Force Survey estimate, the total number of Muslims in Great Britain in 2008 was 2,422,000, around 4 per cent of the total population. Between 2004 and 2008, the Muslim population grew by more than 500,000. In 2010, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated 2,869,000 Muslims in Great Britain. The largest age-bracket within the British Muslim population were those under the age of 4, at 301,000 in September 2008. The

Muslim Council of Britain The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is an umbrella body of Muslim organisations in the United Kingdom, with over 500 affiliated mosques and organisations. It was formed in 1994 in response to British government's expressed wish for a single r ...

and the

Islamic Forum of Europe The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) is an Islamic organisation based in the United Kingdom with affiliates in Europe. Hinduism in the United Kingdom resulted from the

British rule in India The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. There are 835,394 Hindus in Great Britain according to the 2011 census constituting 1.32% of the population, although some estimates put this number at nearly 1.5 million. About half of all

British Hindus British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

live in London metropolitan area. Small Hindu Communities are also found in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

(0.31%) and in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

(0.34%). According to United Kingdom's Office of National Statistics, of all ethnic minorities in Britain, the British Hindus had the highest rate of economic activity. Hindus are more likely than the general population to have higher education and Hindu men are more likely than the general population to be entrepreneurs.Robert Berkeley
Connecting British Hindus - An enquiry into the identity and public policy engagement of British Hindus
Runnymede Trust, Hindu Forum of Britain (2006) British Hindus also have the third lowest poverty level and the lowest rates of arrest, trial or imprisonment.Gavin Berman & Aliyah Dar (July 2013)
Prison Population Statistics
1991-2012, Social and General Statistics, Ministry of Justice, ONS, UK Government Hindus also has the lowest prison population (0.4%).

Sikhism

There are 524,140

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

in the United Kingdom constituting 0.88% of the population, according to the 2021 Census. While England is home to the majority of Sikhs in the United Kingdom, small communities also exist in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The first recorded Sikh settler in the United Kingdom was Maharaja

Duleep Singh Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh (6 September 1838 – 22 October 1893), also spelled Dalip Singh, and later in life nicknamed the "Black Prince of Perthshire", was the last ''Maharaja'' of the Sikh Empire. He was Maharaja Ranjit Singh's youngest son ...

, dethroned and exiled in 1849 at the age of 14, after the Anglo-Sikh wars. During the reign of King Edward VII the first Sikh society in the UK was founded in 1908, it was called The Khalsa Jatha. The first Sikh

Gurdwara A gurdwara or gurudwara () is a place of assembly and place of worship, worship in Sikhism, but its normal meaning is "place of guru" or "home of guru". Sikhism, Sikhs also refer to gurdwaras as ''Gurdwara Sahib''. People from all faiths and rel ...

was established in 1911, in

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a suburb of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, its ...

Putney Putney () is an affluent district in southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ...

, London. The first wave of Sikh migration came in the 1940s, mostly of men from the Punjab seeking work in industries such as foundries and textiles. These new arrivals mostly settled in London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Midlands and West Yorkshire. Thousands of Sikhs from East Africa followed later.

Judaism

The first Jewish community in what is now the UK was attested from at least the 1060s, but was expelled in 1290, although non-practising Jews maintained themselves as a small but identifiable group until the 1560s in London. Practising Jews occasionally travelled to England, and individual Jews settled in various parts of the British Isles. In the early 1600s, a small community of

Sephardic Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

was identified in Bristol, and ordered to leave in 1609. There have continuously been practising Jews in England since at least the 1630s, but it was not until 1656 that

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

made it known they would not be subject to expulsion. The largely Iberian and German early community grew only steadily from the mid 17th century until the late 19th century, when a large wave of Eastern European immigrants roughly quadrupled the population. Another wave of largely German refugees increased it by a further 50% between 1933 and 1945. In 1841

Isaac Lyon Goldsmid Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, 1st Baronet (13 January 1778 – 27 April 1859) was a financier and one of the leading figures in the Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom, who became the first British Jew to receive a hereditary title. Biography ...

was made

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. The first Jewish

Lord Mayor of the City of London Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

, Sir

David Salomons Sir David Salomons, 1st Baronet (22 November 1797 – 18 July 1873), was a leading figure in the 19th century struggle for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom. He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London and Lord Mayor of Lon ...

, was elected in 1855. In 1858, practising Jews were allowed to become serving MPs; on 26 July 1858,

Lionel de Rothschild Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (22 November 1808 – 3 June 1879) was a British Jewish banker, politician and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England. He became the first practising Jew to sit a ...

was finally allowed to sit in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

when the law restricting the oath of office to Christians was changed, although

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a ...

, a baptised, teenage convert to Christianity of Jewish parentage, was already an MP at this time and rose to become Prime Minister in 1874;

David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist, politician, and member of Parliament. He is recognized as one of the most influential classical economists, alongside figures such as Thomas Malthus, Ada ...

, another convert to Christianity, had been an MP in the 1810s. In 1884

Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild (8 November 1840 – 31 March 1915), was a British banker and politician from the wealthy international Rothschild family. He was also a hereditary Baron of the Austrian Empire. Early life Nat ...

became the first practising Jewish member of the British

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

; again Disraeli was already a member.

number around 300,000 with the United Kingdom having the fifth largest Jewish community worldwide. However, this figure did not include Jews who identified 'by ethnicity only' in England and Wales or Scottish Jews who identified as Jewish by upbringing but held no current religion. The largest concentrations of Jews are in London and its environs, Greater Manchester, and Leeds.

Buddhism

In the UK census for 2011, there were about 178,000 people who registered their religion as Buddhism. The earliest Buddhist influence on Britain came through its imperial connections with

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, and as a result the early connections were with the

Theravada ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhi ...

traditions of

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The tradition of study resulted in the foundation of the

Pali Text Society The Pāli Text Society is a text publication society founded in 1881 by Thomas William Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pāli texts." Pāli is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism are preserved. The ...

, which undertook the task of translating the

Pali Canon The Pāḷi Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhism, Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant Early Buddhist texts, early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from t ...

of Theravāda Buddhist Tradition into English. Buddhism as a path of practise was pioneered by the Theosophists,

Madame Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian-born mystic and writer who emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international foll ...

and Colonel Olcott, and in 1880 they became the first Westerners to receive the

Three refuges In Buddhism, refuge or taking refuge refers to a religious practice which often includes a prayer or recitation performed at the beginning of the day or of a practice session. Its object is typically the Three Jewels (also known as the Triple ...

and Five precepts, the formal conversion ceremony by which one traditionally accepted and becomes a Buddhist. In 1924 London's

Buddhist Society The Buddhist Society is a UK registered charity which aims to encourage the study and practice of Buddhist principles. The Buddhist Society is an inter-denominational and non-sectarian lay organisation. It offers talks and classes on the teach ...

was founded, and in 1926 the Theravadin

London Buddhist Vihara The London Buddhist Vihara ( Sinhala:ලන්ඩන් බෞද්ධ විහාරය ''Landan Bauddha Viharaya'') is one of the main Theravada Buddhist temples in the United Kingdom. The Vihara was the first Sri Lankan Buddhist monastery t ...

. The rate of growth was slow but steady through the century, and the 1950s saw the development of interest in

Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...

. In 1967

Kagyu Samyé Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre is a Tibetan Buddhist complex associated with the Karma Kagyu school located at Eskdalemuir, Scotland. History Before the present Temple complex was built, Samye Ling centred on just one building, a ...

, now the largest

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Arunachal Prades ...

centre in Western Europe, was founded in Scotland. The first home-grown Buddhist movement was also founded in 1967, the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (now the

Triratna Buddhist Community The Triratna Buddhist Community, formerly the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO), is an international fellowship of Buddhists. It was founded in the UK in 1967 by Sangharakshita (born Dennis Philip Edward Lingwood) and describes itse ...

Thai Forest Tradition The Kammaṭṭhāna Forest Tradition of Thailand (from meaning Kammaṭṭhāna, "place of work"), commonly known in the West as the Thai Forest Tradition, is a Parampara, lineage of Theravada Buddhist monasticism. The Thai Forest Traditi ...

Ajahn Chah Ajahn Chah (17 June 191816 January 1992) was a Thai Buddhist monk. He was an influential teacher of the ''Buddhadhamma'' and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition. Respected and loved in his own country as a man of g ...

was also established at

Chithurst Buddhist Monastery ''Cittaviveka'' (Pali: ' discerning mind'), commonly known as Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, is an English Theravada Buddhist monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition. It is situated in West Sussex, England in the hamlet of Chithurst between ...

in West Sussex in 1979, giving rise to branch monasteries, including

Amaravati Buddhist Monastery Amaravati is a Theravada Buddhist monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in South East England. Established in 1984 by Ajahn Sumedho as an extension of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, the monastery has its roots in the Thai Forest Tr ...

and

Aruna Ratanagiri Aruna Ratanagiri Buddhist Monastery (Harnham Buddhist Monastery) is a Theravada Buddhist monastery of the Thai Forest Tradition in Northumberland, England. The community consists of monks, novices and postulants from a wide range of nationali ...

.There are also other groups like

Order of Interbeing The Order of Interbeing (, anglicised Tiep Hien, ) is an international Buddhist community of monks, nuns and laypeople in the Plum Village Tradition founded between 1964 and 1966 by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh. Initially, Nhấ ...

and

Soka Gakkai is a Japanese new religions, Japanese new religion led by Minoru Harada since December 2023 based on the teachings of the 13th-century Buddhist priest Nichiren. It claims the largest membership among Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhist group ...

in the United Kingdom.

Other religions

Modern paganism

In the United Kingdom, census figures do not allow an accurate breakdown of traditions within the Pagan heading, as a campaign by the

Pagan Federation The Pagan Federation is a UK-based religious advocacy group. Formed in 1971 as the Pagan Front, the group campaigns for the religious rights of Neo-pagans with the aim of educating both civic bodies and the general public. The Pagan Federati ...

before the 2001 Census encouraged Wiccans, Heathens, Druids and others all to use the same write-in term 'Pagan' in order to maximise the numbers reported. For the first time, respondents were able to write in an affiliation not covered by the checklist of common religions, and a total of 42,262 people from England, Scotland and Wales declared themselves to be Pagans by this method. These figures were not immediately analysed by the Office for National Statistics, but were released after an application by the Pagan Federation of Scotland. In the 2001 Census, a total of 42,262 people from England, Scotland, and Wales declared themselves to be pagans or adherents of

Wicca Wicca (), also known as "The Craft", is a Modern paganism, modern pagan, syncretic, Earth religion, Earth-centred religion. Considered a new religious movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion, the path evolved from Western esote ...

. However, other surveys have led to estimates of around 250,000 or even higher. According to the

2011 UK Census A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...

, there are roughly 53,172 people who identify as Pagan in England, and 3,448 in Wales,

Wicca

In the

11,026 people identified as

ns in England and 740 in Wales.

Druidry

Modern Druidry grew out of the Celtic revival in 18th century Romanticism. A 2012 Druid analysis estimates that there are roughly 11,000 Druids in Britain.

Heathenry

Heathenry (new religious movement), Heathenry consists of a variety of modern movements attempting to revive

, such as that practiced in the British Isles by the Anglo-Saxon and Norse peoples prior to Christianisation. In the

2,108 people identified as Heathens. Heathenry in the United Kingdom, Asatru UK was founded in 2013 and operates as a country-wide group for all inclusive Heathens. As of May 2021, Asatru UK had 2,903 members of its Facebook group. The group currently does not own land and thus is in the process of carving portable pole gods, god posts that can be used in a vé. The first of these was of the god Woden and was consecrated at a gathering in 2021.

Jainism

Jain Temple Oshwal Centre Pottersbar Hertfordshire UK ground

As of 2011, there are around 20,288 Jains in the United Kingdom. Leicester houses one of the world's few Jain temples outside of India. There is an Institute of Jainology at Greenford, London. One of the first Jain settlers, Champat Rai Jain, was in England during 1892–1897 to study law. He established the Rishabh Jain Lending Library in 1930. Later, he translated several Jain texts into English.

Baháʼí Faith

The

in the United Kingdom has a historical connection with the earliest phases of the Baháʼí Faith starting in 1845 and has had a major effect on the development of communities of the religion in far flung nations around the world. It is estimated that between 1951 and 1993, Baháʼís from the United Kingdom settled in 138 countries. At the 2011 UK Census, there were 5,021 Baháʼís in just England and Wales. This declined by the 2021 UK Census to 4,725, a diminution of just under 6%.

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism in the United Kingdom has a relatively long history. Shapurji Saklatvala, Britain's first ethnically South Asian parliamentarian was Zoroastrian and there have been Zoroastrians in the UK for over a century. Many come from the Zoroastrian Parsi community of northwest India, which was under the control of the British Raj until 1948. According to the 2021 UK census, there were 4,105 Zoroastrians in England and Wales, of which 4,043 were in England. The majority (51%) of these (2,050) were in

, most notably the boroughs of London Borough of Barnet, Barnet, London Borough of Harrow, Harrow and Westminster. The remaining 49% of English Zoroastrians were scattered relatively evenly throughout the country, with the second and third largest concentrations being Birmingham (72) and

(47).

UK-origin movements

; Christian *

** Anglo-Catholicism *

** General Baptists ** Reformed Baptists **

* British Israelism * British New Church Movement, British New Church * General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, British Unitarians * Catholic Apostolic Church (Irvingism) *

** The Salvation Army *

* Puritans ** Congregationalism **

***

*** Church of Scotland, Scottish Presbyterianism *

; Other * Druidry (modern), Druidry * Thelema * Triratna Buddhist Community, Triratna Buddhism *

Religion and society

Religion and politics

Though the main political parties are secular, the formation of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party was influenced by Christian socialism, Ethical movement, Ethical humanism, and by leaders from a nonconformist backgrounds, such as Keir Hardie. Labour's early development was also markedly influenced by non-religious philosophies such as secular humanism, humanism through Ethical movement, which gave rise to the Fabian Society and incubated prominent Labour people such as its first Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald (who even previously served as President of Humanists UK). Most Labour leaders have been atheists and agnostics (exceptions include Smith, Blair, Brown, and Corbyn). On the other hand, the Church of England was once nicknamed "the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party at prayer", though this has changed since the 1980s as the Church has moved to the left of the Conservative Party on social and economic issues. Some minor parties are explicitly 'religious' in ideology: two 'Christian' parties – the Christian Party (UK), Christian Party and the Christian Peoples Alliance, fielded joint candidates at the 2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, 2009 European Parliament elections and increased their share of the vote to come eighth, with 249,493 votes (1.6% of total votes cast), and in London, where the CPA had three councillors, the Christian parties picked up 51,336 votes (2.9% of the vote), up slightly from the 45,038 gained in 2004. The Church of England is represented in the UK Parliament by 26 bishops (the Lords Spiritual) and the British monarch is a member of the church (required under Article 2 of the Treaty of Union) as well as its supreme governor. The Lords Spiritual have seats in the House of Lords and debate government policies affecting the whole of the United Kingdom. The Church of England also has the right to draft legislative measures (related to religious administration) through the General Synod of the Church of England, General Synod that can then be passed into law by Parliament. The Prime Minister, regardless of personal beliefs, plays a key role in the appointment of Church of England bishops, although in July 2007 Gordon Brown proposed reforms of the Prime Minister's ability to affect Church of England appointments.

Religion and education

Religious education#United Kingdom, Religious education and Collective Worship (schools in England and Wales), Collective Worship are compulsory in many state schools in England and Wales by virtue of clauses 69 and 70 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Clause 71 of the act gives parents the right to withdraw their children from Religious Education and Collective Worship and parents should be informed of their right in accordance with guidelines published by the Department for Education; "a school should ensure parents or carers are informed of this right". Retrieved on 15 June 2012 The content of the religious education is decided locally by the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education. In England and Wales, a significant number of state funded schools are faith schools with the vast majority Christian (mainly either of Church of England or Catholic) though there are also Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faith schools. Faith schools follow the same National Curriculum (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), national curriculum as state schools, though with the added ethos of the host religion. Until 1944 there was no requirement for state schools to provide religious education or worship, although most did so. The Education Act 1944 introduced a requirement for a daily act of collective worship and for religious education but did not define what was allowable under these terms. The act contained provisions to allow parents to withdraw their children from these activities and for teachers to refuse to participate. The Education Reform Act 1988 introduced a further requirement that the majority of collective worship be "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character". According to a 2003 report from the Office for Standards in Education, a "third of governing bodies do not fulfil their statutory duties adequately, sometimes because of a failure to pursue thoroughly enough such matters as arranging a daily act of collective worship". In Scotland, the majority of schools are non-denominational, but separate Catholic schools, with an element of control by the Catholic Church, are provided within the state system. The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 imposes a statutory duty on all local authorities to provide religious education and religious observance in Scottish schools. These are currently defined by the Scottish Government's Curriculum for Excellence (2005).

Religion and prison

Prisoners are given religious freedom and privileges while serving their sentences. This includes access to a chaplain or religious advisor, authorised religious reading materials, ability to change faith, as well as other privileges.Ministry of Justic
Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners
Several faith-based outreach programmes provide faith promoting guidance and counselling. Every three months, the Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom), Ministry of Justice collects data, including religious affiliation, of all UK prisoners and is published as the Offender Management Caseload Statistics. This data is then compiled into reports and published in the House of Commons library. On 31 March 2015 the prison population of England and Wales was recorded as 49% Christian, 14% Muslim, 2% Buddhist, 2% other religions and 31% no religion. In this statistics, Muslims happen to be the most disproportionately represented religious group facing arrest, trial and imprisonment, with 13.1% of prisoners being Muslims while the community represents 4% of those aged 15 years or older within the general population. The Prison Officers' Association has put that down to thousands of prisoners becoming so-called "convenience Muslims" – converting to the religion to deliberately play the system. [ ...] It added they were also being made even more vulnerable to radicalisation."

Religion and the media

The Communications Act 2003 requires certain broadcasters in the United Kingdom to carry a "suitable quantity and range of programmes" dealing with religion and other beliefs, as part of their Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public service broadcasting. Prominent examples of religious programming include the BBC television programme ''Songs of Praise'', aired on a Sunday evening with an average weekly audience of 2.5 million, and the ''Thought for the Day'' slot on BBC Radio 4. Channels also offer documentaries on, or from the perspective of a criticism of organised religion. A significant example is Richard Dawkins' two-part Channel 4 documentary, ''The Root of all Evil?''. Open disbelief of, or even mockery of organised religion, is not regarded as a taboo in the British media, though it has occasionally provoked controversy – for example, the movie ''Monty Python's Life of Brian'', the poem "The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name", and the musical ''Jerry Springer: The Opera'', all of which involved characters based on Jesus, were subject to public outcry and blasphemy allegations, while ''The Satanic Verses'', a novel by British Indian author Salman Rushdie which includes a fantasy sequence about Muhammed, caused The Satanic Verses controversy, global protests including several by British Muslims.

Religion and social identity: patron saints of the home nations

*Saint George is the patron saint of England. *Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. *Saint David is the patron saint of Wales. *Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland.

Interfaith dialogue, tolerance, religious discrimination and secularism

Interfaith dialogue

The Interfaith Network for the United Kingdom encompasses the main faith organisations of the United Kingdom, either directly with denominational important representatives or through joint bodies for these denominations, promotes local interfaith cooperation, promotes understanding between faiths and convenes meetings and conferences where social and religious questions of concern to the different faith communities can be examined together, including meetings of the Network's 'Faith Communities Consultative Forum'. Ecumenism, Ecumenical friendship and cooperation has gradually developed between Christian denominations and where inter-sect prejudice exists this has via education and employment policy been made a pressing public matter in dealing with its two prominent examples – sectarianism in Glasgow and segregation in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland – where segregation is declining.

Tolerance and Religious Discrimination

In the early 21st century, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 made it an offence in England and Wales to incite hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion. The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were abolished with the coming into effect of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 on 8 July 2008. 2005–2010 polls have shown that public opinion in the United Kingdom generally tends towards a suspicion or outright disapproval of radical or evangelical religiosity, though moderate groups and individuals are rarely subject to less favourable treatment from society or employers. The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against people on the basis of religion, in the supply of goods and services and selection for employment, subject to very limited exceptions (such as the right of schools and religious institutions to appoint paid ministers).

Secularism

There is no strict separation of church and state in the United Kingdom. Accordingly, most public officials may display the most common identifiers of a major religion in the course of their duties – for example, rosary beads. Chaplains are provided in the armed forces (see Royal Army Chaplains' Department, Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch, RAF Chaplains Branch) and in prisons. Although school uniform codes are generally drawn up flexibly enough to accommodate compulsory items of religious dress, some schools have banned wearing the crucifix in a necklace, arguing that to do so is not a requirement of Christianity where they prohibit all other necklaces. Post-adolescence, the wearing of a necklace is permitted in some List of further education colleges in England, F.E. colleges who permit religious insignia necklaces on a wider basis, which are without exception permitted at universities. Some churches have warned that the Equality Act 2010 could force them to go against their faith when hiring staff. In 2011, judges ruled that the European Convention on Human Rights required bed-and-breakfast owners to rent rooms to same-sex couples. In 2011, Clive Bone sued Bideford Town Council for opening meetings with prayer. The High Court ruled in Bone's favor but, soon afterward, the government passed new laws permitting prayer at town meetings. In 2011, two judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales upheld previous statements in the country's jurisprudence that the (Canon law (Church of England), non-canon) laws of the United Kingdom 'do not include Christianity'. Therefore, a local authority was acting lawfully in denying a Christian married couple the right to foster care because of stated negative views on homosexuality. In terms of the rights recognised "in the case of fostering arrangements at least, the right of homosexuals to equality [pursuant to the Equality Act 2010] should take precedence over the right of Christians to manifest their beliefs and moral values".

National and regional differences

Levels of affiliation vary between different parts of the UK, particularly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The percentages declaring themselves Christians in the 2011 Census are 59.4 in England, 57.6 in Wales and 53.8 in Scotland, which decreased by 12.3, 14.3, and 11.3 percentage points respectively from the census of 2001. Northern Ireland remains one of the most religious nations in western Europe with 82.3% of the population claiming Christian affiliation, with a decline of only 3.5% by the 2011 census, while "other religions" have increased in membership. Religion has been seen as both a product and a cause of political divisions in Northern Ireland.

Main religious leaders

* The reigning Monarch is the supreme governor of the Church of England, with the Archbishops of Archbishop of Canterbury, Canterbury and Archbishop of York, York below them. * The

presides over the annual Assembly, but does not lead, the Church of Scotland. * The Primus of Scotland is the presiding bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church. * The imam, Great Imam is Abdul Qayum (imam), Sheikh Mawlana Abdul Qayum, who serves the largest Muslim congregation in Great Britain. * The Archbishop of Westminster is the ''ex officio'' President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. * The ''de facto'' head of the Catholic Church in Scotland is the most senior archbishop, currently Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh (see Bishops' Conference of Scotland). * The Primate of All Ireland (of both the Church of Ireland and of the Catholic Church) exercises his ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Northern Ireland as well as the Republic of Ireland. * The Archbishop of Wales is one of the six diocesan bishops of the Church in Wales, chosen from them by an electoral college comprising the bishops and other representatives. (The Archbishop retains his or her original diocese). * The Chief Rabbi is the title of the leader of Orthodox Judaism in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth. * The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland presides over, but does not lead, the Church. * The Bogoda Seelawimala Thera, Chief Sangha Nayaka is the head of Theravada Buddhism in the UK, and representative of Buddhism at UK and Commonwealth Remembrance Day Ceremony and at the Commonwealth Day Ceremony at the Cenotaph and Royal Weddings and Funerals. * The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by the Europe Area (LDS Church), Area Presidency. The current area president is Elder Erich W. Kopischke with Elder Gérald J. Caussé and Elder José A. Teixeira as first and second counsellors respectively. * The Khalifatul Masih, Caliph Masih of the Ahmadiyya Community is Mirza Masroor Ahmad, and Fazl Mosque, London, Fazl Mosque is his headquarters.

Notable places of worship

Christian Jewish Islamic Hindu Buddhist Sikh

Footnotes

References

External links

General

Eurel: sociological and legal data on religions in Europe

BBC ''What the World Thinks of God'' television programme
*

Christianity

Church of England

Church of Scotland

Presbyterian Church in Ireland

Church of Ireland
(Anglican)
Church in Wales
(Anglican)
Catholic Church in England and Wales

Catholic Church in Ireland

Assemblies of God of Great Britain

Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales

Free Church of Scotland

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
*Ecumenical Patriarchate *
Greek Orthodox Church in Great Britain
*
Parishes in the British Isles under the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Paris Exarchate
!-- the listing of parishes on this website is disputed: Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe#Parishes and Communities of the Vicariate -->
Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain and Ireland – Diocese of Sourozh, Patriarchate of Moscow

Antiochian Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Judaism

Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth
(Orthodox)
Masorti Judaism

Movement for Reform Judaism

Liberal Judaism

Islam

Muslim Council of Great Britain

Hinduism

Hindu Council UK

Hindu Cultural Association of Wales UK

Sikhism

The Sikh Council UK

The Network of Sikh Organisations UK

Buddhism

The Buddhist Society

Paganism

The Pagan Federation

Police Pagan Association

Asatru UK

No religion

Humanists UK

The Freethinker – The voice of Atheism since 1881
{{United Kingdom topics Religion in the United Kingdom,

History

Prehistory–11th century: Paganism and Christianisation

12th–16th centuries: High Middle Ages and the Reformation

17th–19th centuries: Modernity

20th–21st centuries: Secularisation and multiculturalism

Statistics

Religious affiliations

Historical trends since 1900

Censuses

Surveys

Religious affiliation (%) in England, Scotland and Wales according to the Annual Population Survey 2007-2016

Attendance

Belief

Jedi census phenomenon

Christianity

Protestantism

Anglicanism

Baptists

Charismatics and Pentecostalism

Methodism

Presbyterianism and Congregationalism

Quakers

Catholicism

Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodoxy

Oriental Orthodoxy

Other Trinitarian denominations

Non-Trinitarian denominations

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Other non-Trinitarian denominations

Islam

Sikhism

Judaism

Buddhism

Other religions

Modern paganism

Wicca

Druidry

Heathenry

Jainism

Baháʼí Faith

Zoroastrianism

UK-origin movements

Religion and society

Religion and politics

Religion and education

Religion and prison

Religion and the media

Religion and social identity: patron saints of the home nations

Interfaith dialogue, tolerance, religious discrimination and secularism

Interfaith dialogue

Tolerance and Religious Discrimination

Secularism

National and regional differences

Main religious leaders

Notable places of worship

See also

Footnotes

References

Further reading

Primary sources

External links

General

Christianity

Judaism

Islam

Hinduism

Sikhism

Buddhism

Paganism

No religion