Christians now account for less than half of England and Wales’ population for the first time in census history, government figures reveal.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) results show that 46.2 per cent of the population (27.5 million people) described themselves as ‘Christian’ in 2021. This marks a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3 per cent (33.3 million people) in 2011.
The census data also shows that every major religion increased over the ten-year period, except for Christianity.
Despite this decrease, ‘Christian’ remained the most common response to the question about religion. ‘No religion’ was the second most common response, increasing to 37.2 per cent (22.2 million) from 25.2 per cent (14.1 million) across the ten-year period.
⛪🚨 BREAKING | Christians now a minority in England and Wales for first time, according to census.
Proportion of the population of England and Wales describing themselves as Christian has fallen below a half, ONS figures from 2021 show.https://t.co/F9u0PT1Kou
— Telegraph Breaking News (@TelegraphNews) November 29, 2022