Three-quarters in UK say they're Christian

Christian Century, March 8, 2003

Nearly three-quarters of the people of the United Kingdom--England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland--describe themselves as Christian, according to a recently published census.

The finding emerged from the 2001 national census, the first to ask the 52 million respondents about religion. The results showed 37.3 million people declared their adherence to Christianity, even though less than 10 percent go to church weekly.

"It is a wake-up call to the churches when so many people identify as Christian but don't feel strongly enough to be part of a church," said David Goodbourn, general secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

Some 72 percent described themselves as Christians, 15.5 percent said they had no religion, and 7.3 percent declined to answer the question. Most non-Christians, 2.7 percent, said they were Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh or Buddhist.

Encouraged by a campaign on the Internet, 390,000 people--0.7 percent of the population--put their religion down as Jedi. Statistically they were included in the "no religion" category.