LONDON: The number of people in England and Wales who identify as Christian has fallen to less than half the population for the first time, while the number of people who identify as Muslim or Hindu has increased marginally, according to the latest census figures released on Tuesday. growth has been registered. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its analysis of the 2021 census to show that just over 46 per cent said they were Christian, down from 59.3 per cent in the previous census conducted in 2011.
Those identifying as ‘no religion’ was the second most common response in the census survey, increasing from 25.2 per cent in 2011 to 37.2 per cent, while those identifying as Muslim or Hindu registered an increase.
“For the first time in the Census of England and Wales, less than half the population (46.2 per cent, 27.5 million people) described themselves as ‘Christian’, a decrease of 13.1 percentage points from 59.3 per cent (33.3 million) in 2011; Despite this decrease, ‘Christianity’ remained the most common response to the religion question,” said the Office for National Statistics release.
described themselves as ‘Muslim’ (3.9 million, 6.5 percent in 2021, up from 2.7 million, 4.9 percent in 2011) and ‘Hindu’ (1.0 million, 1.7 percent in 2021, up from 1.0 million, 1.7 percent in 2021) 818,000, up 1.5 per cent on 2011),” the ONS said.
Those identifying as Sikh also reported similar increases from 0.8 percent (423,000) in 2011 to 0.9 percent (524,000) in 2021, and Buddhists from 0.4 percent (249,000) to 0.5 percent (273,000). Those who identified as Jewish remained the same at 0.5 percent of the population.
The religion question in the census is voluntary, which the ONS said 94 per cent of residents answered, an increase from 92.9 per cent in 2011.
The data also shows that London remains the most religiously diverse area of England, with Harrow in the north of the UK capital having the highest percentage of Hindu population at 25.8 per cent, up from 25.3 per cent in 2011.
The city of Leicester, which is known for its grand Diwali celebrations, had a greater increase of practicing Hindus at 17.9 percent, up 2.7 percentage points from 15.2 percent in 2011.
The city has become one of the first in the country where people who identify as white are not the majority, with 41 percent in 2021 compared to 51 percent in 2011.
Wolverhampton and Sandwell in the West Midlands region of England continued to be the areas with the overall highest percentage of people describing their religion as Sikh and the largest percentage increase.
As of 2011, the area with the highest percentage of Muslim population was the Tower Hamlets and Newham areas of east London, followed by the borough of Blackburn with Darwen in north-west England.
In his analysis of national identity, Indian remains the third most common non-UK identity among residents in England and Wales, after Polish and Romanian.
This trend is reflected in the top foreign languages spoken in the country after English, with Polish taking the top spot followed by Romanian.
Punjabi, which was the second most common language in 2011, has dropped to third place, followed by Urdu in fourth place. Among South Asian languages, Bengali and Gujarati have moved up from fourth and fifth positions in 2011 to eighth and ninth positions, respectively.
The next most common ethnic group ticked in the census was Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh, accounting for 9.3 per cent of the total population – 5.5 million people, up from 4.2 million.
The 2021 Census survey, carried out in March last year, was filled out by more than 24 million households in England and Wales and more data from the survey is set to be published in stages by the ONS over the next two years.
The Scottish census was due to take place in 2021, but was delayed by a year due to the COVID pandemic.