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The United Kingdom in the 21st century is a multifaith society. Everyone has the right to religious freedom. Religious organisations and groups may conduct their rites and ceremonies, promote their beliefs within the limits of the law, own property and run schools and a range of other charitable activities. The 2001 Census included, for the first time in the UK since 1851, a question on religion.

Although the Census 2001 also recorded 390,000 Jedi Knights, making Jedi the fourth-largest 'religion' in the UK, this does not confer them any official recognition. In the latter half of the 20th century, large scale immigration from the Commonwealth countries has led to the introduction of other religions that are practiced by ethnic minorities (see table left below). This has included religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism. Religions claiming pre-Christian British origins (e.g. Neo-druidism), have some followers, although actual numbers are not known. There is evidence that atheism and agnosticism have grown in the UK over the last 40 years (see table right below); according to a 2004 poll 35% of all residents now consider themselves to be either atheist or agnostic.

Christianity has been the most influential religion in the UK, and it remains the declared faith of the majority of the population. Despite this fact more than 80% of people do not regurarly go to religious services. This definitely does not mean that this vast majority does not believe in God or rejects the existence of any kind of supernatural being, heaven and hell or life after death. According to surveys the majority of the people in the UK certainly has some kind spiritual belief. Two churches have a special status with regard to the State. In England, following the rejection by Henry VIII of the supremacy of the Pope in 1534, the Anglican Church of England has been legally recognised as the official, or established, Church. The Monarch is the ‘Supreme Governor’ of the Church of England and must always be a member of the Church, and promise to uphold it. A similar situation applied in Scotland until the early 20th century regarding the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. (Since then the Church has continued to be recognised as the national Church. The Monarch holds no constitutional role in the government of the Church of Scotland but is represented at the General Assembly in the office of the Lord High Commissioner.) There are no ‘established’ churches in Wales or Northern Ireland. In Wales, the Anglican Church is known as the Church in Wales.

Other Faith Communities

In addition to Christianity, the United Kingdom is also home of many other world religions.

§ A significant Muslim community has existed in the UK since Muslim seamen and traders settled around the major ports in the early 19th century. Most came from the Middle East and the areas that are now Pakistan and Bangladesh. There was further settlement after the First World War, and again in the 1950s and 1960s as people arrived to meet the shortage of labour following the Second World War. The 1970s saw the arrival of significant numbers of Muslims of Asian origin from Kenya and Uganda. There are also well-established Turkish Cypriot and Iranian Muslim communities, while more recently Muslims from Somalia, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo have sought refuge in the UK. There are smaller numbers of English and West Indian Muslims. In total, there are around 1.5 million people who identify themselves as Muslims in the UK, the majority of whom are now British-born.

§ Most of the Sikh community in the UK are of Punjabi from East Africa and other former British colonies to which members of their family had migrated, but the majority have come to the UK directly from the Punjab. There are between 400,000 and 500,000 members, making it the largest Sikh community outside the Indian subcontinent.

§ The Hindu community in the UK originates largely from India, although others have come from countries of Africa to which earlier generations had previously migrated (Kenya, Tanzania, etc.). The number of members is close to 1 million.

§ Jews first settled in England at the time of the Norman Conquest. They were expelled by Edward I in 1290, but readmitted during the Cromwellian Republic (1642–51). Sephardic Jews, who originally came from Spain and Portugal, have been present in the UK since the mid-17th century. The majority of the 300,000 Jews in the UK today, while British born, are Ashkenazi Jews, of Central and East European origin, who fled persecution in the Russian Empire between 1881 and 1914, and Nazi persecution in Germany and other European countries from 1933 onwards.

§ The Buddhist community in the UK has around 50,000 followers, both of British or Western origin, and of South Asian and Asian background.

§ Other religious groups in the UK were originally founded in the United States in the 19th century. These include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church, with about 180,000 members in Britain), the Jehovah’s Witnesses (146,000 members), the Christadelphians, the Christian Scientists. The Spiritualists have about 35,000 members. These religious groups claim to be Christians, even sound Christian, but do not acknowledge the Holy Bible (instead have their own, modified version), as well as teaching that only those belonging to their churches will go to heaven (Anglicans, Catholics, Baptists, Methodists etc. will not).

§ A number of newer, non-Christian religious movements, established since the Second World War and often with overseas origins, are now active in the UK. Examples include the Church of Scientology, the Transcendental Meditation movement, the Unification Church and various New Age groups.

1. God is the creator of the universe; personal, omnipotent, omnipresent, righteous but gracious.

3. Mankind is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, people cannot know and experience God's love and plan for their life.

4. Jesus Christ is God's only provision for people's sin. Through Him (by His death on the Cross and ressurection from death) everyone can know and experience God's love and plan for their life.

5. Anyone who individually receives Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord; can know and experience God's love and plan for his/her life.

Religious background influences several aspects of everyday life. These 'cause and effect' patterns can be revealed by socio-metric investigations.

§ Muslims have the youngest age profile of all the religious groups in Great Britain. Muslims are the only religious group in which men outnumber women – 52 per cent compared with 48 per cent. This reflects the gender structure of Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups, in which men slightly outnumber women due to their immigration history.

§ Younger people are more likely than older people not to belong to any religion, reflecting the trend towards secularisation.

§ People from non-Christian religions (in 2001) made up 6 per cent of the population in England, compared with only 2 per cent in Wales and 1 per cent in Scotland.

§ People from Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Sikh backgrounds were concentrated in London and other large urban areas. Christians and those with no religion were more evenly dispersed across the country.

§ The Jewish population was the most heavily concentrated in London, with 56 per cent of the Jewish population of Great Britain living there. Almost one in five Jews (17 per cent) lived in the London Borough of Barnet, where they constituted 15 per cent of the population.

§ Just over half (52 per cent) of Britain’s Hindu population lived in London.

§ Christians were spread across Britain. London had the lowest proportion of Christians – only 58 per cent of the London population described themselves as Christians.

§ In every religious group the majority of adults aged 16 and over in Great Britain described their national identity as either British, English, Scottish or Welsh.

§ National identity is strongly related to the country of birth. Adults from all religious groups who were born in the UK were more likely than their foreign-born counterparts to give a British identity.

§ Almost all (99 per cent) UK-born Jews, Christians and people with no religion had a British national identity (as opposed to English, Scottish or Welsh). Nine out of ten UK-born Buddhists (94 per cent), Muslims (93 per cent), Sikhs (90 per cent) and Hindus (91 per cent) gave a British national identity.

§ Muslim, Sikh and Hindu households in Great Britain are larger than households headed by someone of another religion. In 2001, households headed by a Muslim were the largest, with an average size of 3.8 people, followed by households headed by Sikhs (3.6 people) and Hindus (3.2 people). A third of Muslim households (34 per cent) contained more than five people, as did 28 per cent of Sikh and 19 per cent of Hindu households.

§ Jewish, Christian and Buddhist households were smaller – each with an average size of 2.3 people.

§ Over 30 per cent of these households contained only one person, compared with between 13 and 15 per cent of Sikh, Hindu or Muslim households.

§ Muslim households also contained the highest number of children. A quarter (25 per cent) of Muslim households contained three or more dependent children, compared with 14 per cent of Sikh, 7 per cent of Hindu, and 5 per cent of Christian households.

§ Lone parent households are less common within Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Jewish communities.

§ In January 2003 there were almost 7,000 state-maintained faith schools in England, making up 35 per cent of primary and 17 per cent of secondary schools. The overwhelming majority of these faith schools (99 per cent) were Christian.

§ In 2003-2004, almost a third (31 per cent) of Muslims of working age in Great Britain had no qualifications – the highest proportion for any religious group. They are also the least likely to have degrees.

§ After Muslims, Sikhs are the next most likely to have no qualifications, followed by Christians. Around a quarter (23 per cent) of Sikhs and 15 per cent of Christians had no qualifications. Overall, Sikhs are as likely as Christians to hold degrees (16 per cent in each group in 2003-2004), and young Sikhs are more likely than Christians of the same age to do so. The pattern is reversed among older age groups.

§ Jews and Buddhists, followed by Hindus, are the most likely to have degrees. A third of Jews and Buddhists (37 and 33 per cent respectively), and a quarter (26 per cent) of Hindus, had a degree.

§ Tightly connected to the previous comparison, unemployment rates for Muslims are higher than those for people from any other religion, for both men and women.

§ Jewish people were most likely to be self-employed in Great Britain in 2003-2004, followed by Muslims.

§ Certain religious groups are concentrated in particular industries. In 2003-2004, 40 per cent of Muslim men in employment were working in the distribution, hotel and restaurant industry compared with 17 per cent of Christian men and no more than 29 per cent of men in any other group.

§ Muslims, together with Sikhs, were more likely than other men to be working in the transport and communication industry. More than one in seven from these religions worked in this sector compared with less than one in ten from any other religious group.

§ Jewish men were more likely than men from any other religion to work in the banking, finance and insurance industry. Around a third of Jewish men worked in this sector.

National Statistics, UK 2002, The Official Yearbook of Great Britain and Northern Ireland