page_title: Demography of the United Kingdom
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Demography of the United Kingdom / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: This chart shows the proportion of UK citizens responses with regards to their religion at the 2011 census.
context_page_description: In the 2011 UK Census, the total population of the United Kingdom was about 63,182,000. It is the 21st most populated country in the world. Its population density is 259 people per square kilometre, with England having significantly greater density than Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Almost a third of the people lives in England's southeast, which is predominantly urban and suburban, with about 9,000,000 in the capital city, London, whose population density is just over 5,200 per square kilometre.
  The population of the United Kingdom has undergone demographic transition—that is, the transition from a pre-industrial population, with high birth and mortality rates and slow population growth, through a stage of falling mortality and faster rates of population growth, to a stage of low birth and mortality rates with, again, lower rates of growth. This growth through 'natural change' has been accompanied in the past two decades by growth through net migration into the United Kingdom, which since 1999 has exceeded natural change.
context_section_description: The traditional religion in the United Kingdom is Christianity. In England the established church is the Church of England (Anglican). In Scotland, the Church of Scotland (a Presbyterian Church) is regarded as the 'national church' but there is not an established church.
  In Wales there is no established church, with the Church in Wales having been disestablished in 1920. Likewise, in Ireland, the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871. In Northern Ireland and similarly in parts of Scotland, there is a degree of sectarian divide between Roman Catholic and Protestant communities.
  The table below shows data regarding religion for the 2001 and 2011 censuses:
  In the 2011 Census, rather than select one of the specified religions offered on the Census form, many people chose to write in their own religion. Some of these religions were reassigned to one of the main religions offered. In England and Wales, 241,000 people belonged to religious groups which did not fall into any of the main religions. The largest of these were Pagans (57,000) and Spiritualists (39,000). The census also recorded 177,000 people stating their religion as Jedi Knight. These returns were classified as "No religion", along with Atheist, Agnostic, Heathen and those who ticked "Other" but did not write in any religion.
  In 2012 the British Social Attitudes Survey found the highest number to be non-religious (48%) followed by Christians (46%) with another six percent identifying otherwise. Discrepancies found between surveys may be the result of differences in phrasing, question order, and data collection method.
caption: This chart shows the proportion of UK citizens responses with regards to their religion at the 2011 census.
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