Muslims on the rise, Christians on the decline: UK releases census data - ZENIT - English

Muslims on the rise, Christians on the decline: UK releases census data - ZENIT - English: Perhaps the most striking revelation: fewer than half of UK residents now identify as Christian. The number, 46.64% of nearly 67 million respondents, marks a turning point for a country historically shaped by Anglican cathedrals and Catholic parishes

LOCAL CHURCH "Christians And Muslims: Extinguishing The Fire Of War And Lighting The Candle Of Peace." Photo: AICA Muslims on the rise, Christians on the decline: UK releases census data Perhaps the most striking revelation: 

fewer than half of UK residents now identify as Christian. The number, 46.64% of nearly 67 million respondents, marks a turning point for a country historically shaped by Anglican cathedrals and Catholic parishes

Muslims on the rise, Christians on the decline: UK releases census data | ZENIT - English

(ZENIT News / London, 07.13.2025).- In an unprecedented collaboration, three of the United Kingdom’s leading statistical agencies have unveiled a sweeping portrait of national identity—one that lays bare the seismic shifts occurring across the realms of faith, marriage, and belief. 

The data, newly synthesized from the once-disparate 2021 census in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and the delayed 2022 census in Scotland, reveals a United Kingdom in the midst of a quiet but unmistakable transformation. 

For the first time, statisticians have been able to reconstruct a synchronized snapshot of life across the entire UK on a single day: March 21, 2021. This retroactive calibration, achieved by the Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, offers a granular and unprecedented view into the ways Britons relate to religion, partnership, and identity. 

Perhaps the most striking revelation: fewer than half of UK residents now identify as Christian. The number, 46.64% of nearly 67 million respondents, marks a turning point for a country historically shaped by Anglican cathedrals and Catholic parishes. 

In contrast, 37.64% of respondents claimed no religious affiliation whatsoever, a number that rises sharply among younger cohorts. 

The generational divide is unmistakable. Among adults over 60, Christianity remains dominant—nearly 70% still identify with the faith, compared to just 20% who selected no religion. But that picture flips among younger Britons. 

More than half of those under 34 say they hold no religious beliefs, and only a third claim Christian affiliation. 

Among the UK’s 13.8 million children, 44% are growing up without religion, and just 36% are raised Christian. 

A full 10% of British children identify as Muslim, a demographic shift that may shape the religious landscape of coming decades. Gender, too, offers a lens into the UK’s shifting religious fabric. 

Women remain more likely than men to identify with a religious tradition across nearly all faith groups. Christianity shows a 3-million-person gender gap (17 million women versus 14 million men), and even in Hinduism and Buddhism, female identifiers slightly outnumber males. 

Men, by contrast, are more likely to claim no religious affiliation—13.3 million compared to 11.9 million women—and also make up the majority among British Muslims.

Muslims on the rise, Christians on the decline: UK releases census data | ZENIT - English

Alongside these spiritual patterns, the census has traced the evolving contours of marriage and civil partnerships. 

Among the 54 million Britons over the legal age of 16, 45% are married or in a civil union. 

A slightly smaller group—38%—have never been formally partnered. 

Divorce, separation, and widowhood account for the remaining 17%, a figure that reflects an aging population and changing attitudes toward lifelong commitment. 

Interestingly, the data challenges assumptions about young adulthood. While the 20–34 age group is often viewed as ambivalent toward traditional marriage, it turns out that Britons are statistically more likely to be married by their mid-thirties than in their twenties.

 Delayed marriage is increasingly the norm, a trend mirrored in many other Western countries. 

Taken together, these numbers offer a portrait not of decline, but of transition. The UK is becoming more pluralistic, more diverse in belief, and more fluid in its relationship structures. 

While Christianity no longer commands majority status, the story is not one of sudden abandonment but of gradual evolution—a rebalancing of public and private identities in a society negotiating new moral and cultural frontiers. The data also hints at deeper questions that census forms can’t fully answer. 

What replaces religion when belief fades? 

What becomes of community when traditional marriages diminish? 

And what does it mean to belong in a nation where old institutions are receding and new ones have yet to fully emerge?

Muslims on the rise, Christians on the decline: UK releases census data | ZENIT - English