Religion in the United Kingdom

 
See below the fold for an explanation of the categories and more data.

Regular churchgoers:15% of UK adults go to church at least once a month. This is equivalent to 7.6 million regular churchgoers
in the UK.

Fringe churchgoers: 3% of UK adults go to church less than monthly but at least six times a year. This is equivalent to 1.6 million fringe churchgoers in the UK.

Occasional churchgoers: 7% of UK adults go to church less than six times a year but at least once a year. This is equivalent to 3.4 million occasional churchgoers in the UK.

Open de-churched: 5% of UK adults do not go to church* but they used to attend in the past and are very or fairly likely to go to church in future. This is equivalent to 2.3 million adults in the UK who are open de-churched.

Closed de-churched: 28% of UK adults do not go to church*, used to attend in the past but say they are not very or not at all likely to go to church in future. This is equivalent to 13.7 million adults in the UK who are closed de-churched.

Open non-churched: 1% of UK adults have never been to church in their life, apart from weddings, baptisms or funerals yet say they are very or fairly likely to go to church in future. This is equivalent to 0.6 million adults in the UK who are open non-churched.

Closed non-churched: 32% of UK adults have never been to church in their life, apart from weddings, baptisms or funerals and are not very or not at all likely to go to church in future. This is equivalent to 15.6 million adults in the UK who are open closed non-churched.

Other religions: 6% of UK adults, equivalent to 3.2 million people, belong to religions other than Christianity.

Unassigned: Only 162 respondents (2%) were “unassigned” because they did not answer the question on prior church attendance, although none of these had been to church in the last 12 months. A third of them attended church less than once a year or never, whilst two thirds declined to state their frequency of attendance.

* never attend or go less than once a year.

This is what a modern secular society looks like [Churchgoing in the UK]. People in Canada and the USA need to be aware of these numbers because that's where we're headed, especially in Canada. The executive summary says it all.

Two thirds of UK adults (66%) or 32.2 million people have no connection with church at present (nor with another religion). These people are evenly divided between those who have been in the past but have since left (16 million) and those who have never been in their lives (16.2 million). This secular majority presents a major challenge to churches. Most of them - 29.3 million - are unreceptive and closed to attending church; churchgoing is simply not on their agenda.

Apologists will argue that not going to church is not the same as disbelieving in God. This is true but it's a pretty good indication of how committed one is to religion.

Britain is still a country that believes in God whereas belief in a personal God has declined markedly. More than 2 in 3 (67%) of people in Britain today believe in God while 1 in 4 (26%) believe in a personal God.

In other words, 33% don't believe in God and less than half of all believers believe in a personal God. If you're a God person then the demographics does not look promising.