For the first time, less than half of the population of England and Wales self-identifies as Christian during the census, according to a report. BBC.
The census is conducted every ten years by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and the last time the survey was conducted was in 2011. It asks people about religion on a voluntary basis.
In 2021, the percentage of those who declared themselves Christian was 46.2 percent, compared to 59.3 percent according to the last census in 2011. The percentage of those who identify as Muslim increased from 4.9 percent in 2011 to 6.5 percent last year.
And the number of those who declared themselves “non-religious” rose to 37.2 percent, from 15 percent in 2011. This category also includes atheists and agnostics, as well as all those who cannot really make up their minds.
People were also asked about their ethnic group and national identity – the answers are revealed in the results, which have just been published.
In England and Wales, 81.7 percent of the population identified as white, compared to 86.0 percent a decade ago. 74.4 per cent declared themselves to be English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British and also white.
The next most common ethnic group was Asians, British Asians or Asian Welsh, with their numbers rising by 1.3 million over the past 10 years. The proportion of people who identified themselves as Black, British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African was 2.5 per cent of the population (that’s 1.5 million people), up from 1.8 per cent ten years earlier.
For non-UK identities, the most common answer was Polish, followed by Romanian. In 14 boroughs of England, people who identify as white are now in the minority.
