Britons losing faith as Christian numbers decline
Some people consider themselves religious but do not identify with any church, expert says
London: Only half of Britons consider themselves Christian, a sharp decline on 25 years ago, an academic study suggests.
One expert described a large proportion of the country as the "fuzzy faithful", people who have a vague belief in God but do not belong to a particular denomination or attend services.
However, most people still say religion helps bring happiness and comfort, and regret its declining influence on modern society. Professor David Voas, a sociologist from the University of Manchester who analysed the data, said: "More and more people are ceasing to identify with a religion at all. The key distinction in Britain now is between religious involvement and indifference."
His analysis, to be published next month by the National Centre for Social Research, looks at the results of 4,486 interviews conducted in the respected 2008 British Social Attitudes survey. It shows that just 50 per cent of respondents now call themselves Christian, down from 66 per cent in 1983.
The proportion who have "no religion" has increased from 31 per cent to 43 per cent. Non-Christians, including Muslims and Jews, represent 7 per cent of the population, up from 2 per cent 25 years ago.
The steepest fall was among those who say they worship in the Church of England, down from 40 per cent of those who call themselves Christians to 23 per cent. Official Church figures show that average Sunday attendance was 978,000 in 2007, compared with 1.2 million in 1983.
The proportion of Roman Catholics declined only slightly from 10 per cent to 9 per cent. Of people questioned, 37 per cent either did not believe in God or were unable to say if a supreme being exists, while 35 per cent had a definite belief in God or belief with occasional doubts.
Sixty-two per cent said they never attended services in a place of worship. Professor Voas believes that the population can be categorised as religious, non-religious or "fuzzy faithful" — the 36 per cent who "identify with a religion, believe in God or attend services, but not all three".
