Measuring religious affiliation in Great Britain: the 2011 census in historical and methodological context

Figures & data

Table 1. Estimated religious profile of adult/whole population of England and Wales/Great Britain, 1680–1939 (percentages).

Date	Area	Population	Church of England	Free Church/Presbyterian	Catholic	Non-Christian	No religion
1680	EW	All	94	4	1	*	–
1720	EW	All	92	7	1	*	–
1760	EW	All	94	5	1	*	–
1800	EW	All	88	10	1	*	*
1840	EW	All	77	20	3	*	*
1914	GB	Adults	61	28	9	1	1
1939	GB	Adults	55	29	11	1	4

Notes: * denotes a figure of less than 0.5 percent. EW denotes England and Wales, GB Great Britain.

Sources: Figures for 1680–1840 from Field (2012a, 711); for 1914 from Field (2013b, 62) (adjusted to include an estimate for nominal Catholics not known to priests); for 1939 from Field (2013c, 91).

Table 2. Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain according to ONS omnibus testing of five questions about religious affiliation, 2007–9 (percentages).

Question	Date	Christian	Non-Christian	No religion
What is your religion or belief?	Sep. 2007	64	12	25
	Nov. 2007	67	8	25
	Dec. 2007	66	9	25
	Mean	66	10	25
What is your religion?	May 2008	76	8	17
	Mean	76	8	17
What is your religion, even if not currently practising?	May 2008	74	6	18
	June 2008	77	9	15
	April 2009	74	8	18
	May 2009	73	5	21
	June 2009	69	9	22
	July 2009	77	5	18
	Mean	74	7	19
Do you regard yourself as belonging to a religion?	June 2008	65	6	29
	Mean	65	6	29
Which of these best describes you?	April 2009	73	7	19
	May 2009	68	5	26
	June 2009	68	9	23
	July 2009	71	6	23
	Mean	70	7	23

Note: Approximately 1000 interviews were conducted each month.

Source: ONS (2009): annexe A.

Table 3. Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain according to cumulated Gallup Polls, 1947–96 (percentages).

Date	N =	Church ofEngland	Church ofScotland	FreeChurch	Catholic	Otherreligion	Noreligion
1947–49	?7000	51	8	15	11	6	9
1957	2261	55	7	15	9	5	9
1963	21 495	61	8	11	10	4	6
1964	10 708	62	8	11	10	4	6
1974	17 968	61	7	7	11	6	8
1978	11 061	60	7	7	12	6	8
1979	11 097	61	7	7	12	5	8
1982	5800	58	8	6	14	6	8
1987	3918	58	7	4	13	7	12
1992	4064	55	6	5	14	5	15
1996	4666	53	5	5	12	8	16

Notes: The question asked is ‘What is your religious denomination?’ Church of England and Church of Scotland figures in 1992 are estimated since only a total for both denominations combined was coded. Other religion represents a combination of Christians other than Anglican, Catholic or Free Church and of non-Christians, the latter mostly not being separately identified by Gallup.

Sources: Statistics for 1963 from Brothers (1971, 12); for 1964 from Gallup Election Handbook, March 1966; and for 1974 and 1979 from Gallup Political Index. All other figures from unpublished data held by the author.

Table 4. Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain according to National Opinion Polls, 1965–93 (percentages).

Date and question	N =	Church of England	Church of Scotland/Presbyterian	Catholic	Other religion	Atheist/agnostic	No religion/don't know/refused
What is your religion, if any?
March 1965	2160	63	9	10	15	1	2
Feb. 1967	1899	63	10	10	15	2	0
Sep. 1967	1792	64	8	11	13	3	1
Aug. 1968	1218	64	9	10	13	3	1
Jan. 1970	1705	65	8	10	13	3	1
Which religious group would you say you come into in terms of your beliefs?
June 1970	1396	60	8	10	17	4	1
April 1973	1974	57	7	9	16	5	6
July 1978	1985	59	8	9	14	6	3
Aug. 1978	1852	58	7	11	13	6	4
Sep. 1981	1991	57	8	11	14	5	6
April 1982	1104	60	7	12	13	5	4
Oct. 1984	1992	59	6	9	13	6	7
Feb. 1985	1709	54	5	12	15	10	4
Jan.–Feb. 1986	1652	53	7	11	15	6	8
April–May 1989	1960	54	7	11	16	9	4
Regardless of your religious upbringing, would you tell me what your religion is now?
Sep. 1976	2125	59	6	10	13	7	4
Nov. 1978	1952	59	7	9	13	7	5
March–April 1993	2017	52	6	10	15	11	6

Sources: Published and unpublished reports in author's possession.

Table 5. Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain according to British Social Attitudes Surveys, 1983–2010 (percentages).

Date	N =	Church ofEngland	Catholic	Other denom.Christian	Undenom.Christian	Non-Christian	Noreligion
1983–85	5115	38	11	12	3	3	33
1986–90	11 438	37	10	12	3	3	35
1991–95	12 842	33	10	11	5	3	38
1996–2000	14 570	29	9	10	6	4	43
2001–05	18 525	28	9	9	7	5	42
2006–10	19 521	21	9	7	10	6	47
2011–12	6520	21	9	6	10	7	47

Note: The question asked is ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?’

Source: Calculated from http://www.britsocat.com.

Table 6. Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain according to British Election Studies, 1974–2010 (percentages).

Date	N =	Church of England	Catholic	Other religion	No religion
1974	2349	42	9	16	34
1979	1854	31	10	17	42
1983	3944	45	11	18	26
1987	3813	41	10	17	32
1992	3521	33	11	26	30
1997	3591	32	11	25	32
2001	3857	29	11	19	41
2005	1201	31	10	15	44
2010	1576	30	8	15	48

Note: The question asked has varied: ‘Do you belong to any religious denomination?’ (1974); ‘Do you belong to any church or religious group?’ (1979); and ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?’ (1983–2010).

Source: Calculated from http://www.besis.org.

Table 7. Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain according to British Household Panel Survey, 1991–2009 (percentages).

Date	N =	Church of England	Catholic	Other Christian	Non-Christian	No religion
1991–92	9912	36	9	14	3	38
1997–98	6900	35	9	12	3	41
1999–2000	6538	35	9	12	3	41
2004–05	5440	32	8	12	4	44
2008–09	4683	32	8	12	4	44

Notes: The question is ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?’ The analysis is restricted to surviving members of the original 1991–92 panel.

Source: Supplied by Professor David Voas.

Table 8. Religious profile of adult population of the United Kingdom according to European Social Survey, 2002–12 (percentages).

Date	N =	Catholic	Other Christian	Non-Christian	Any religion	No religion
2002	2052	8	35	5	49	51
2004	1892	–	–	–	51	49
2006	2389	–	–	–	47	53
2008	2351	10	32	5	47	53
2010	2422	8	29	7	45	55
2012	2277	11	31	7	49	51

Note: The question is ‘Do you consider yourself as belonging to any particular religion or denomination?’

Source: Calculated from http://nesstar.ess.nsd.uib.no

Table 9. Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain according to Annual Population Survey/Integrated Household Survey, 2004–12 (percentages).

Date	N =	Christian	Non-Christian	No religion
2004–05	518 743	78	6	16
2005–06	365 016	76	7	17
2006–07	353 914	75	7	18
2007–08	348 699	74	8	19
2008–09	339 805	72	8	20
2009–10	442 266	73	7	20
2010–11, Q1–3	311 793	70	8	22
2010–11, Q4	102 039	64	9	27
2011–12	342 506	62	8	29
2012	338 174	61	9	30

Notes: Until 2010 the question asked was ‘what is your religion, even if you are not currently practising?’ From 2011 it changed to ‘what is your religion?’ The base excludes Northern Ireland.

Sources: Figures to 2008–09 from Perfect (2011: 5); later ones calculated from http://nesstar.esds.ac.uk

Table 10. Religious profile of adult population of England and Wales according to Citizenship Surveys, 2005–11 (percentages).

Date	N =	Christian	Non-Christian	No religion
2005	9654	77	8	15
2007–08	9325	74	10	16
2008–09	9317	72	10	18
2009–10	9291	70	8	21
2010–11	10 296	68	10	22

Notes: The question asked is ‘What is your religion even if you are not currently practising?’ The base is the core sample, excluding ethnic minority boosts.

Source: Calculated from http://nesstar.esds.ac.uk

Table 11. Religious profile of adult population of England according to Taking Part surveys, 2005–12 (percentages).

Date	N =	Christian	Non-Christian	No religion
2005–06	21 058	72	8	20
2006–07	23 547	71	7	22
2007–08	25 070	70	7	24
2008–09	14 117	70	6	24
2009–10	5954	70	6	24
2010–11	13 712	67	6	26
2011–12	8941	69	6	26

Note: The question asked is ‘What is your religion?’

Source: Calculated from: https://www.kmrsoftware.net/netquestdcms/Default.aspx

Table 12. Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain according to various surveys, 2010–12 (percentages).

Question	Date	Agency	Method	N =	Christian	Non-Christian	Noreligion
SAMPLE SURVEYS
Which religion, if any, do you regard yourself as belonging to?	2010	Opinion ResearchBusiness	online	4030	53	8	39
Which of the following religious groups do you consider yourself to be a member of?	2011	Populus	online	44 551	58	8	35
Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?	2010	YouGov	online	16 816	41	6	53
What is your religion?	2011	YouGov	online	64 301	55	5	40
Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?	2009–10	NatCen	face-to-face	45 741	44	7	49
Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?	2010–11	NatCen	face-to-face	6560	45	7	48
What is your religion even if you are not currently practising?	2010	ONS	face-to-face	311 793	72	8	21
What is your religion?	2011–12	ONS	face-to-face	342 506	64	8	28
CENSUS
What is your religion?	2011				66	8	27

Sources: Opinion Research Business (2010) from data tables in author's possession; Populus (2011) from 16 polls at http://www.populus.co.uk and http://lordashcroftpolls.com; YouGov (2010) supplied by Dr Ben Clements; YouGov (2011) from http://www.yougov.polis.cam.ac.uk; NatCen (2009–10) supplied by Professor David Voas; NatCen 2010–11 from http://www.britsocat.com; ONS (2010) and ONS (2011–12) from http://nesstar.esds.ac.uk

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