Fewer residents of Birmingham identify as Christian

Ten candles are lit at the altar of St Michael's church in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal for the victims of the explosion at Applegreen service station on Friday. Picture date: Monday October 10, 2022.

Fewer people identify as Christian and more people are non-religious in Birmingham than a decade ago, new census figures show.

Humanists UK ran campaigns in the lead up to the censuses in 2011 and 2021 encouraging non-religious people to select "no religion". The organisation said the recent figures should be a "wake-up call" for reconsidering the role religion has in society.

Office for National Statistics data from the 2021 census shows 34% of people in Birmingham selected Christianity as their religion, down significantly from 46% in the last survey a decade before.

About 24% selected "no religion" last year, up from 19% in 2011.

Of these, 421 people said they were agnostic, while 185 selected Atheism.

The area follows trends across England and Wales where 46% of the population described themselves as Christian in the recent census, down from 59% a decade earlier. It is the first time the proportion has dropped below half.

And the percentage of people saying they had no religion jumped from around a quarter (25%) in 2011 to over a third (37%) last year.

The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell said: "It’s not a great surprise that the census shows fewer people in this country identifying as Christian than in the past, but it still throws down a challenge to us not only to trust that God will build his kingdom on Earth but also to play our part in making Christ known."

Nationally, there were increases in the proportion of people describing themselves as Muslim, with 6.5% selecting the religion last year, up from 4.9% in the previous census. More people also identified as Hindu, increasing from 1.5% in 2011 to 1.7% in 2021.

The figures show more people in Birmingham identify as Muslim, with 341,811 selecting the religion last year, up from 234,411 in 2011.

Additionally, 21,997 residents said they were Hindu in the survey, down from 22,362 10 years ago.

There were 4,340 Buddhists and 1,687 residents who selected Judaism.

Of the other options, 923 said they were pagans and 50 said they practice Heathenism.

The National Secular Society said the figures show that aspects of society such as the Anglican establishment and daily prayers and worship in parliament and schools, are “all inappropriate, hopelessly outdated and fail to reflect the country we actually live in” and called for reform.

Stephen Evans said, the society's chief executive, said: “It’s official – we are no longer a Christian country.”