The United Kingdom has just released a survey that will disappoint the religious among us: They are quickly becoming a minority in Great Britain. This news hails from something our neighbors across the pond have called the British Social Attitudes Report, and it’s the 36th year the survey has been conducted.
According to the Friendly Atheist, 52% of British respondents are religiously unaffiliated. Even more encouraging for those hoping the western world is abandoning religion is the fact that most of that 52% did not have to deconvert. They were not raised with a religion in the first place. Thirty-three percent of that number said that they are “very” or “extremely” non-religious. The first British Social Attitudes Report came out in 1983, when 68% were self-identified Christians. That number now sits at 38%. Just 1% of the all-important 18-24 age bracket claims any affinity for the Church of England, which is the demographic that predicts trends in most societies today:
From the Friendly Atheist:
“Britain is becoming more secular not because adults are losing their religion but because older people with an attachment to the C of E and other Christian denominations are gradually being replaced in the population by younger unaffiliated people.”
“To put it another way, religious decline in Britain is generational; people tend to be less religious than their parents, and on average their children are even less religious than they are.”
The survey concludes that these numbers represent a “dramatic decline” in Christianity amongst the British people. This could also offer political hope with regards to the nation’s swing to the far right as well. After all, the less religious someone is, the more liberal they tend to be.
Featured image via Flickr
