See below the fold for an explanation of the categories and more data.Regular churchgoers:15% of UK adults go to church at least once a month. This is equivalent to 7.6 million regular churchgoers
in the UK.
Fringe churchgoers: 3% of UK adults go to church less than monthly but at least six times a year. This is equivalent to 1.6 million fringe churchgoers in the UK.
Occasional churchgoers: 7% of UK adults go to church less than six times a year but at least once a year. This is equivalent to 3.4 million occasional churchgoers in the UK.
Open de-churched: 5% of UK adults do not go to church* but they used to attend in the past and are very or fairly likely to go to church in future. This is equivalent to 2.3 million adults in the UK who are open de-churched.
Closed de-churched: 28% of UK adults do not go to church*, used to attend in the past but say they are not very or not at all likely to go to church in future. This is equivalent to 13.7 million adults in the UK who are closed de-churched.
Open non-churched: 1% of UK adults have never been to church in their life, apart from weddings, baptisms or funerals yet say they are very or fairly likely to go to church in future. This is equivalent to 0.6 million adults in the UK who are open non-churched.
Closed non-churched: 32% of UK adults have never been to church in their life, apart from weddings, baptisms or funerals and are not very or not at all likely to go to church in future. This is equivalent to 15.6 million adults in the UK who are open closed non-churched.
Other religions: 6% of UK adults, equivalent to 3.2 million people, belong to religions other than Christianity.
Unassigned: Only 162 respondents (2%) were “unassigned” because they did not answer the question on prior church attendance, although none of these had been to church in the last 12 months. A third of them attended church less than once a year or never, whilst two thirds declined to state their frequency of attendance.
* never attend or go less than once a year.
This is what a modern secular society looks like [Churchgoing in the UK]. People in Canada and the USA need to be aware of these numbers because that's where we're headed, especially in Canada. The executive summary says it all.
Two thirds of UK adults (66%) or 32.2 million people have no connection with church at present (nor with another religion). These people are evenly divided between those who have been in the past but have since left (16 million) and those who have never been in their lives (16.2 million). This secular majority presents a major challenge to churches. Most of them - 29.3 million - are unreceptive and closed to attending church; churchgoing is simply not on their agenda.Apologists will argue that not going to church is not the same as disbelieving in God. This is true but it's a pretty good indication of how committed one is to religion.
Britain is still a country that believes in God whereas belief in a personal God has declined markedly. More than 2 in 3 (67%) of people in Britain today believe in God while 1 in 4 (26%) believe in a personal God.In other words, 33% don't believe in God and less than half of all believers believe in a personal God. If you're a God person then the demographics does not look promising.
I'll have to study this a while, the terminology alone is complex and obscure. Closed vs. open, non-churched vs. de-churched - this needs to be translated into English.
ReplyDeleteHere is a quick explanation of the terms. Mix and match as-needed
ReplyDeletenot going to church now:
-de-churched: did go to church in the past
-non-churched: didn't go to church in the past
-Closed: not likely to go to church in the future
-Open: likely to go to church in the future
going to church now
-churchgoers
attendance:
Regular churchgoers
> 1/month >
Fringe churchgoers
> 6/year >
Occasional churchgoers
> 1/year >
non/de-churched or unassigned
I would consider 1/month to be fairly low attendance. They also do not have a "re-churched" category for people who used to be non-churched or de-churched but are now churched. That would be interesting, but very well might be negligible. There are also no "open" or "closed" churchgoer numbers, which would be interesting.
Any bets on how long before some religious apologist claims the demographics indicates that non-believers die young?
ReplyDeleteInteresting data... I'd love to see a similar study done in Canada. Even better would be multiple, parallel such studies for different regions (perhaps by province, or urban vs. suburban vs. rural).
I haven't looked at the source, but on the face of it this is the first consistent demographics I've seen. Interestingly even the group including hesitant choosers (unassigned) follows the rest of the general pattern FWIW.
ReplyDelete"I would consider 1/month to be fairly low attendance."
Could be influenced by cultural context. Attending every week doesn't strike me as a likely modern northern european pattern, and also, churchgoers should be influenced by others general behavior. So perhaps we need to weight the numbers accordingly.
Who remembers “Yes Prime Minister”? The satirical comedy revolved around the Prime Minister (Haker) and his chief civil-servant (Sir Humphrey), forever trying to outwit each other.
ReplyDeleteGreat line -
Sir Humphrey: The Queen is inseparable from the Church of England.
Hacker: And what about God?
Sir Humphrey: I think He’s what’s called an optional extra.
I'll have to study this a while, the terminology alone is complex and obscure. Closed vs. open, non-churched vs. de-churched - this needs to be translated into English.
ReplyDelete'De-churched' is pretty easy to understand. Think 'de-loused'.
An English cradle Catholic (potato famine emigre family) writes: All the generation above me were/are practising (they're now 70+). None of my generation are, none of their kids are. I live in an historical epicentre of British Christianity (date of Easter set here, can't throw a brick without hitting a dead saint's tomb) and the churches are populated with elderly widows or sold. The priests are old and dying.
ReplyDeleteThe Church of England, that really made-up church (also called the Conservative party at prayer): the friend I know who goes openly admits it's a social club. Other CofE friends say much the same as for the RCs: congregations old, no young communicants.
15 years and lots of the UK's Christians will be find out whether it's all true...
I also suspect that most people who sail they believe hadn't thought about God until asked for the survey, they hedged their bets.