Study: England, Wales are 20% Anglican, 8% Catholic, 49% ‘no religion’

June 08, 2016

A study published by the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham has found that 48.5% of adults in England and Wales identify themselves as having no religion.19.8% identify themselves as Anglicans, 8.3% as Catholics, 4.4% as Muslims, and 3.3% as members of another non-Christian religion.

In 1983, 44.5% identified themselves as Anglicans, and 8.2% identified themselves as Catholics.

Among the other key findings of the study:

• “The age profile of Catholics is notably younger than that for Christians as a whole.”
• “Among the main Christian denominations, Catholics have the strongest retention rate: 55.8% of cradle Catholics still identify as Catholic in adulthood. But Catholics also have the weakest conversion rate: only 7.7% of current Catholics were not brought up Catholic.”
• “For every one Catholic convert there are 10 cradle Catholics who no longer regard themselves to be Catholic.”
• 28.5% of Catholics say they attend Mass weekly, while nearly 60% of cradle Catholics say they rarely or never attend Mass.
• “There are clear positive correlations between regular church attendance and being female, older, and/or non-White. Two-thirds of all weekly-or-more Mass goers are women. Almost a quarter of all weekly-or-more Mass goers are women over 65.”

 

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Further information:

• Contemporary Catholicism in England and Wales (St. Mary’s University Twickenham)