According to the 2011 UK census, the religious breakdown of England and Wales was as follows:
- Christian – 59%
- No religion – 25%
- Muslim – 5%
- Hindu – 1.5%
- Sikh, Jewish, Buddhist, all <1%
The relationship between ethnicity and religion
- Christianity is a predominately White religion, especially the Anglican church
- African forms of Christian spirituality have increased dramatically in the last two decades. Pentecostal Churches are predominately attended by British Africans and African-Caribbeans.
- Sikhs and Hindus are predominantly of Indian Heritage
- British Muslims are predominately of Pakistani Heritage, although there is considerable ethnic diversity within British Islam
- There is some evidence that African-Caribbeans are more likely to be involved in sects such as the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Ethnic minorities tend to be more religious than White Britons
- Only 32% of adults who reported being Christian said they practiced their religion regularly. This compares to 80% of Muslims and 2/3rds of Hindus, Sikhs and Jews
- Black Christians are 3 times more likely to attend church than White Christians (English Church Census, 2005)
- Muslims, Hindus and Black Christians see religion as more central to their identity than White Christians. O’Beirne 2004 found that:
- Asians, especially Muslims ranked religion and family equally as markers of identity
- African-Caribbeans and Black-Africans ranked religion as the third most important factor in their lives.
- White Christians rarely ranked religion as central to their identity.
