Religion
The traditional religion in the United Kingdom is Christianity. In England the established church is the Church of England (Anglican). In Scotland, the Church of Scotland (a Presbyterian Church) is regarded as the 'national church' but there is not an established church.
In Wales there is no established church, with the Church in Wales having been disestablished in 1920. Likewise, in Northern Ireland the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871. In Northern Ireland and similarly in parts of Scotland, there is a sectarian divide between Roman Catholic and Protestant communities.
The table below shows the most recent census data (2001) regarding religion:
| Religion | Number | % |
|---|---|---|
| Christian | 42,079,000 | 71.6% |
| No religion | 9,104,000 | 15.5% |
| Muslim | 1,591,000 | 2.7% |
| Hindu | 559,000 | 1.0% |
| Sikh | 336,000 | 0.6% |
| Jewish | 267,000 | 0.5% |
| Buddhist | 152,000 | 0.3% |
| Other religion | 179,000 | 0.3% |
| Not stated | 4,289,000 | 7.3% |
| Total religious | 45,163,000 | 76.8% |
Rather than select one of the specified religions offered on the 2001 Census form, many people chose to write in their own religion. Some of these religions were reassigned to one of the main religions offered, predominantly within the Christian group.
In England and Wales, 151,000 people belonged to religious groups which did not fall into any of the main religions. The largest of these were Spiritualists (32,000) and Pagans (31,000), followed by Jain (15,000), Wicca (7,000), Rastafarian (5,000), Bahà'ì (5,000) and Zoroastrian (4,000).
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 fact, all returns with "Jedi Knight" were classified as "No religion", along with Atheist, Agnostic, Heathen and those who ticked "Other" but did not write in any religion.
An Office for National Statistics survey of 450,000 Britons in 2010 confirmed that 71% are Christian, 4% are Muslim and 21% lack a religious affiliation.
See also: Status of religious freedom in the United Kingdom, Islam in the United Kingdom, Hinduism in the United Kingdom, Buddhism in the United Kingdom, Sikhism in the United Kingdom, History of the Jews in England, and Judaism in the United KingdomRead more about this topic: Demography Of The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“This religion takes away the courage of thinking of unusual things and prohibits self-examination above all as the most egregious of sins.... It is one step away from protestantism.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“I do love this people [the French] with all my heart, and think that with a better religion and a better form of government and their present governors their condition and country would be most enviable.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)