I crunched some numbers on religious belief

[andrewducker]

I've been having a look at some cross-sectional data about religion in the UK and thought it was interesting enough to share.

The comparable data runs from 1997-2018* and basically confirms that while the percentage of people going to services at least once per year has only dropped from 34.6% to 29.5% (or 18.1% to 16% if we just look at weekly/monthly attendance) the percentage of people who say they feel like they're not religious has gone from 41.1%-53.2%.

Which is to say - Only 2-5% less people are going to services, but 12% less feel religious. This matches my feeling that a very large chunk of the drop in religion that's reported isn't actually people abandoning religion, it's people who were never religious in the first place becoming comfortable that they can say so out loud.

This is particularly pronounced in Scotland. "No religion" has gone from 36.3% to 57.4% while service attendance has gone from 41.1% to 27.2%. i.e. 14% less attendance but 21% less religious association.

We're due another census next year, and I'm very curious to see what it finds. The British Social Attitudes finds a massive correlation with age (33% of over 75 year-olds are Anglican, 1% of 18-24 year olds are. Data here), and so I'd expect society to be slowly aging out of mass religious belief.




*Membership is table 2, attendance is table 5. The attendance question was asked differently in 1991, and the membership question wasn't asked between 1991 and 1997. So the first year we can get answers comparable to 2018 in both tables is 1997.

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

Begs the question, is Britain still a Python country.

[andrewducker]

We're running short of Pythons. And some of the remaining ones are losing followers for saying...things.

[danieldwilliam]

Schismatics.

[miss_s_b]

Yeah, there's only Michael Palin left now.

[cmcmck]

I'm not sure they'll include the question on religion this time- it caused a deal of trouble the second time when it became clear that people weren't answering after the previous one got misused.

I answered the time before last (I'm a Quaker as you know) but not last time.

[danieldwilliam]

The Church of Scotland still gets a free place on the oversight committees for schools I think.

[andrewducker]

Seen a bunch of complaining about that recently.

[frith]

Pet peeve alert: describing a reduction in number of people as "less" in lieu of 'fewer'. 'Less' implies fractions of the thing being measured. A fraction of a person is either still a person (an integer value) or dead (still an integer value). Ergo, church attendance can be less (a fraction of time), but those going to or avoiding church will always work out to an integer value and really ought to be characterized as 'fewer'.

[andrewducker]

Linked to from my welcome post
https://andrewducker.dreamwidth.org/2983160.html

[frith]

Oops. Sorry, I forgot about that.

[andrewducker]

No harm done!

[alithea]

People need community - the other way of looking at the age profile is that older people are more likely to be seeking that having lost family and friends. My mother is agnostic but she's been going to church since dad died. I think lots of people find they can do the organised and community bit without necessarily having the faith.

So yeah, I disagree with your conclusion - I don't think society will age out of religion, I think it'll plateau and some individuals will age into it.

I do however, hope we reach the point where we're realistic about how low that plateau is and get rid of state religions.

[skington]

One of the churches in Hyndland (according to a sign outside as we drove past today) has a "knit and natter" weekly mid-morning thing, which seems to fit the bill. So yeah, I can see a combination of "what does it all mean?" and "all my friends have moved away and/or died" making people decide to seek out spirituality and kindred spirits. I just expect current-40-year-olds to decide to choose something other than the local church when they hit their 70s.

[agoodwinsmith]

There's not much for a new comer at that age - and things that rely on couplehood drop female singletons like plague rats. Churches still let such in.

[alithea]

We shall see I guess. I'm not convinced we're going to have an alternative that fits the same niche.

[mountainkiss]

When you say “get rid of state religions”, what do you mean? Delink then from the state?

[alithea]

Yes. Stop privileging one above all others and get rid of things like CofE bishops sitting in the House of Lords (altho obviously HoL reform is a much wider topic).

[mountainkiss]

Gotcha.