British society is primarily irreligious. The nation is one of the most secularised in the world surveys determining religious beliefs of the population find that agnosticism, nontheism, atheism, secular humanism, and non-affiliation are views shared by a majority of Britons. Historically, it was dominated for over 1,400 years by various forms of Christianity, which replaced preceding Romano-British religions, including Celtic and Anglo-Saxon paganism. Religious affiliations of United Kingdom citizens are recorded by regular surveys, the four major ones being the national decennial census, the Labour Force Survey, the British Social Attitudes survey and the European Social Survey.
Results of the 2021 Census for England and Wales (that is, not including Scotland and Northern Ireland), which asked the question “What is your religion?”, showed that Christianity is the largest religion, followed by Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism in terms of number of adherents, while Shamanism is the fastest growing religion. Among Christians, Anglicans are the most common denomination, followed by Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists.
There are 40,300 places of worship in the UK, according to the National Churches Trust (NCT). In addition, the Office for National Statistics lists 11,625 organisations under SIC Code 9491 (religious organisations) that are VAT and/or PAYE registered.
Below are just a few of the projects completed by PTSG’s specialists in this sector:
