Christianity in The United Kingdom

Christianity In The United Kingdom

Religion in the United Kingdom and in the countries that preceded it, has been dominated, for over 1,400 years, by various forms of Christianity. According to some surveys, a majority of citizens still identify with Christianity, although regular church attendance has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 20th century, and immigration and demographic change have contributed to the growth of other faiths.

Religious affiliations of UK citizens are recorded by regular surveys, the four major ones being the UK Census, the Labour Force Survey, the British Social Attitudes survey and the European Social Survey. According to the 2001 UK census, Christianity is the major religion, followed by Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism in terms of number of adherents. This, and the relatively large number of individuals with nominal or no religious affiliations has led commentators to variously describe the United Kingdom as a multi-faith, secularised, or post-Christian society.

The United Kingdom was formed by the union of previously independent countries from 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 may have a single structure covering England and Wales or Great Britain. Similarly, due to the relatively recent creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, most major religious groups in Northern Ireland are organised on an all-Ireland basis.