In 2011, figures released by the UK Office for National Statistics from the national census came as a shock to many. The census, described at the time as the most accurate and comprehensive in the country’s history, revealed a significant decline in the Christian presence in the United Kingdom. Statistics showed that Christians in England and Wales made up only 59% of the population, equivalent at the time to 33.2 million people. This was striking given that Britain, which bears the Christian cross on its flag, had seen 75% of its children baptised in 1933.
Although the figures sparked wide debate, they were not initially viewed as a critical warning for Christian institutions in England. Christians still formed a majority of the population, despite a decline of four million people compared to the year 2000. Churches in the United Kingdom hoped that subsequent years would reverse the trend and allow the country to regain the ground it had lost.
At the time, the Church of England said that “these statistics represent a challenge for us, but they confirm that we remain a believing nation”. In 2014, then Prime Minister David Cameron stated, “I think we should be more confident about our status as a Christian country, and more ambitious in expanding the role of faith-based organisations, and frankly, more willing to evangelise the faith that drives us to make a difference in people’s lives”. Yet the numbers made clear that Islam and irreligion were steadily drawing people away from the churches in the United Kingdom.
Ten years later, new census data confirmed that British churches had not met the challenge they set for themselves. By 2021, the proportion of people who identified as Christian in England and Wales had fallen to less than half of the population, reaching just 46.2%, a sharp decline from 2011.
The average age of Christians in the United Kingdom had risen significantly to 51 years, the highest average age recorded in census history. This coincided with a clear disengagement of young people from religion, as those under 40 were more likely to describe themselves as having no religion. Attendance at church services also dropped sharply during the second decade of the millennium.
On the other hand, 64.2% of 1,200 Christian priests surveyed by The Times said that Britain could no longer be described as a Christian country.
Statistics showed that irreligion and Islam were the most successful in attracting new adherents in the United Kingdom. While the proportion of Christians declined, the percentage of people identifying as having no religion rose from 25% in 2011 to 37.2% in 2021, equivalent to 22.2 million people. The proportion of Muslims increased from 4.9% to 6.5%. It is also notable that only 26% of adults in England and Wales participate in religious activities more than once a year, while just 9 percent attend religious activities on a weekly basis.
It is important to note that irreligion in the Office for National Statistics data does not necessarily mean atheism. It may indicate agnosticism, an ongoing search for faith, adherence to certain spiritual beliefs not classified as religion, or belief in a creator without commitment to a specific faith.
During the same period, official statistics showed that Islam was the fastest-growing religion in Britain in absolute numbers over the second decade of the current millennium. The number of Muslims increased by 1.2 million between 2011 and 2021, reaching 6.5% of the population, equivalent to 3.9 million people.
This growth occurred alongside the decline of Christianity and a slight increase in the number of Hindus, from 1.5% in 2011 to 1.7% in 2021. The Jewish population saw a smaller rise, from 256,000 in 2011 to 271,000 in 2021. The Sikh population also increased marginally from 0.8% to 0.9%, a change largely attributed to migration rather than religious conversion.
The “Great Replacement”
The Great Replacement theory is a belief held by various far-right groups in Europe. It claims that increased migration from Muslim countries and from people of colour will lead to a decline in white Christian European populations, eventually turning Europe into a continent where white Christians are a minority.
Although this theory has less resonance in the United Kingdom than in countries such as Germany and France, largely because the British model has historically been more accustomed to coexistence with Islam, census figures have nonetheless been used by the far right to frame the decline of Christianity as evidence of this conspiracy, particularly as Islam continues to grow in Britain.
According to a report by Euronews, extremist political commentators in Britain exploited these figures in their rhetoric. Tim Squirrell, head of communications and editorial at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said that the census results led to a noticeable increase in discussion of the Great Replacement theory and claims of a “genocide of white Christians” in the UK.
Squirrell warned that while few senior politicians would openly use such language, the growing circulation of these ideas within fringe groups should be viewed with concern.
A 2023 survey conducted by the BBC and King’s College London found that around 10% of respondents believed the Great Replacement theory was “definitely true”, while 20% said it was “probably true”.
However, the reality appears to contradict claims that migration is the primary driver of Christianity’s decline in Britain. The main factor remains the rapid growth of irreligion.
While Islam has been the fastest-growing religion, its rate of growth has still not matched the pace of irreligion. Dr James Williams, senior lecturer in science education at the University of Sussex, noted that many migrants come from devout Christian African countries, and assuming that migration alone is pushing Christianity downward is illogical.
Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society in Britain, founded in 1866 and long campaigning for the separation of religion and state, argued that the latest statistics confirm that the Anglican establishment, church clergy, bishops in parliament, daily worship in schools and parliament, and state-funded religious schools are outdated and no longer appropriate.
According to Professor Woodhead of King’s College London, the decline in Christianity is driven by two main factors. Unlike Muslims and Hindus, who tend to transmit their faith to their children, many Christian parents do not. Abby Day, professor of race, faith and culture at Goldsmiths, University of London, explains that the post-World War II baby boomer generation in Britain began abandoning religious convictions in the 1960s and raised their children without religion.
The second factor follows from the first. As fewer children were raised within the faith, the older generation of practising believers gradually passed away, leading to a contraction of Protestant Christianity in the country.
Yet the most significant point in these statistics is that Britain, whose flag bears the cross, no longer has a Christian majority. Can it still be described as a Christian country, and if not, what might change?
Is Britain a Christian country?
British journalist Capel Lofft argues that “the simple truth is that the United Kingdom is not officially a secular liberal democracy. We still have an established church, with some of its bishops sitting in the upper chamber of our legislature. Our head of state, the King, is the Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and his coronation was a religious ceremony in which he was proclaimed a ruler chosen by God”.
For the first time in a thousand years, Britain is no longer a Christian country in demographic terms. This may surprise some, given that Protestant Christianity once dominated the country to such an extent that Catholics were not granted full political rights until the nineteenth century.
While many English citizens, even those who do not attend church or identify as Christian, still invite priests to officiate weddings and funerals, and while the church remains present in major national ceremonies broadcast on television, public attention has clearly shifted away from church affairs toward football rivalries and royal family news.
In 2015, the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life concluded that Britain was no longer a Christian country and should stop behaving as if it were. The commission found that Christian affiliation had declined while non-Christian religious affiliation had risen, a shift with potential political implications given the deep involvement of religious institutions in public life.
According to Politico, the Church of England ranks as the thirteenth largest landowner in the country, holding assets worth two billion pounds, including 105,000 acres of farmland, forests, historic buildings, and mineral rights. The United Kingdom is also the only advanced Western economy that officially maintains the concept of a state religion.
In addition, the Church of England runs 4,632 state schools across the UK. Politico reports that one-third of publicly funded primary and secondary education providers are religious schools, with the Church of England alone operating 68% of them and giving admission priority to children of practising Christian parents.
Many parents, according to the same report, still attend church services to secure school places for their children, while children of non practising parents may be excluded from their nearest state primary school in favour of those from religious families.
Anglican bishops also sit and vote in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the UK parliament. Britain is one of only three countries in the world that reserve seats in their legislature for religious figures. These bishops, known as the Lords Spiritual, number 26 and are drawn from the established church.
The House of Lords has the power to delay legislation for up to a year. In 2012, there was a proposal to reduce the number of Lords Spiritual to 12, but Politico reported that bishops lobbied against the change, arguing that their presence gives parliament a spiritual and divine dimension. Britain also allocates a significant share of public broadcasting to Christian programming, and its monarch’s coronation is led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as seen with King Charles III.
As a result of this extensive institutional presence, and in light of clear statistical evidence that Christianity is no longer the majority religion, secular organisations and individuals have increasingly questioned the privileged status of the church within the UK constitution, describing it as unjust and undemocratic.
Others, such as Madeleine Pennington, head of research at Theos, a Christian think tank in Britain, argue that even if Christians no longer form a numerical majority, Christian traditions, values, and ethics remain deeply embedded in the country’s political culture and constitutional framework. Britain, in this view, is neither fully Christian nor fully secular in demographic terms, but Christianity has shaped its political imagination and institutions more than any other religion.
This perspective is shared by Alec Ryrie, professor of the history of Christianity at Durham University and author of Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World and Unbelievers: A History of Doubt. Ryrie argues that Christian cultural markers are everywhere, often unnoticed because they form the environment people live within.
She adds that Britain has a long and complex relationship with Christianity, marked by both attachment and rejection, which has shaped the country as it is today. From her perspective, Britain cannot be declared non-Christian simply because most of its population no longer identifies as Christian.
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