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What are the regional differences in Christian affiliation across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland?
Executive summary
England and Wales have seen the steepest falls in people identifying as Christian: in 2021 England and Wales recorded 46.2% identifying as Christian (down 13.1 percentage points since 2011) and Wales fell to 43.6% (a 14.0 point drop) [1]. Scotland registers very high unaffiliation in surveys (a 2017 Scottish survey found 58% not identifying with any religion) while Northern Ireland remains the outlier with a continued Christian plurality — the 2021 Northern Ireland census recorded 42.3% Catholic and 37.5% Protestant [2] [3].
1. England and Wales: rapid secularisation, London the exception
England and Wales together fell below a Christian majority for the first time in the 2021 census: 46.2% described themselves as Christian, down 13.1 percentage points since 2011; contemporaneously “No religion” rose substantially, with Wales especially affected (Wales: Christian 43.6%, No religion 46.5%) [1]. Regional variation inside England matters: London remains the most religiously diverse area with over a quarter of residents reporting a non‑Christian religion, while the North East and South West are the least diverse [1]. Commentators and advocates frame this as generational replacement — younger cohorts report much higher non‑religious identity — and analysts note most Christian losses convert into “no religion” rather than other faiths [4] [1].
2. Scotland: high non‑affiliation and a different denominational mix
Scotland’s picture differs because its census and surveys show particularly high non‑religious identification: a Scottish government survey cited that 58% did not identify with any religion, with only 18% linked to the Church of Scotland and Catholics around 10% [2]. The Church of Scotland is a national church by tradition (Presbyterian) but many Scots report no religion, and Scotland’s census timing (moved to 2022) complicates direct year‑on‑year comparisons with England and Wales outputs [1] [2]. Sources also stress that the Church of Scotland’s membership is a minority (roughly 6% of population in some counts), underscoring institutional decline in routine affiliation [5].
3. Northern Ireland: the exception — still distinctly Christian and denominationally divided
Northern Ireland stands out: the 2021 census recorded 42.3% Catholic and 37.5% Protestant (the first time Catholics formed a plurality in some accounts), meaning Christians remain a large share and the province retains a denominationally split Christian identity rather than wholesale secularisation [2] [3]. Reporting highlights that Northern Ireland’s religious profile remains tied to historical community identities and politics, and while non‑religious numbers have increased since 2011, the overall Christian presence remains far stronger than in Great Britain [2].
4. Denominational patterns: Anglicans, Presbyterians, Catholics and regional strengths
England historically shows the strongest Anglican presence (the Church of England is established there), while Scotland’s historically dominant national church is Presbyterian (Church of Scotland); both face membership declines [6] [5]. Catholicism is the second largest denomination in England and Wales and the largest single Christian denomination in Northern Ireland — in 2021 Catholic identification was 42.3% in Northern Ireland and roughly a fifth of Scotland’s population identify as Catholic in some summaries [6] [5]. Immigration has bolstered Catholic numbers in some English regions, particularly north‑west and urban centres [7].
5. What the data do — and don’t — tell us
Census outputs give clear regional contrasts and show that Christian affiliation is declining fastest in England and Wales and remains comparatively stronger in Northern Ireland; Scotland shows particularly high non‑religious identification in surveys [1] [2]. However, available sources do not mention fine‑grained measures such as weekly attendance by region in 2021, nor do they uniformly report denominational adherence for England and Wales in the census (the England/Wales census does not break down Christian denominations the way Scottish and Northern Irish censuses do), limiting direct denominational comparison across all four jurisdictions [7] [1].
6. Competing interpretations and reported implications
Some outlets frame the numbers as a structural secularisation of Britain and highlight youth disaffiliation, while others point to persistent religious identity in places like Northern Ireland and immigration‑driven religious communities in cities [4] [1] [2]. Policy‑facing reporting notes practical consequences: legal distinctions (e.g., the Church of England’s established status in England, and differing recognition of belief marriages across the UK) reflect and reinforce regional differences in religion‑state arrangements [6] [2].
Limitations: this overview relies on the cited census and survey summaries; precise denominational totals for England and Wales are limited in the census outputs and some sources are secondary analyses or commentary [1] [7].