Membership of the Church of England has dropped sharply in Britain in the last two years while the number of Muslims has grown, a new survey has revealed.
The British Social Attitudes survey found that the proportion of British adults describing themselves as Anglican has fallen from 21 per cent in 2012 to 17 per cent in 2014, a loss of around 1.7 million. That brings the number of Anglicans in Britain to 8.6 million people.
The proportion of Catholics remained roughly stable at 8 per cent, or just over 4 million, as did that of “other” Christians, including Methodists, Presbyterians and non-denominational Christians.
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in Britain. Its population has grown ten times since 1983, to account for around 5 per cent of the total population in 2014.
Almost half – 49 per cent – of the population described themselves as being affiliated to no religion. That proportion is up from 31 per cent in 1983.
Naomi Jones, head of social attitudes at NatCen Social Research, which carried out the survey, said that the number of Catholics and non-Christians could have been boosted by migrant populations.
But she added: “We know from recent NatCen research that people are less likely than in previous years to see being Christian as an important component of being British. Therefore, fewer British people may feel that the Church of England is an important part of their identity nowadays.”
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