section_path: Demographics/Religion
section_name: Religion
paragraph_text: Religion
  
  Christianity has dominated religious life in the United Kingdom for more than 1,400 years. Although a majority of citizens still identify with Christianity in surveys, regular church attendance has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 20th century, while immigration and demographic change have contributed to the growth of Islam and other faiths. This has led some commentators to describe the UK as a multi-faith, secularised, or post-Christian society.
  
  In the 2021 census 46.5 per cent of respondents reported that they were Christians, with the next largest faiths being Islam (5.9 per cent), Hinduism (1.6 per cent), Sikhism (0.8 per cent), Buddhism (0.4 per cent), Judaism (0.4 per cent), and all other religions (0.6 per cent). Of the respondents, 38 per cent stated that they had no religion and a further 6 per cent stated no religious preference. A Tearfund survey in 2007 showed that one Briton in ten attends church weekly. Between the 2001 and 2011 censuses there was a 12 per cent decrease in those who identified as Christian, while the percentage reporting no religious affiliation doubled. This contrasted with growth in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing the most to about 5 per cent. The Muslim population has increased from 1.6 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2011, making it the second-largest religious group in the UK.
  
  The Church of England is the established church. It retains representation in the UK Parliament, and the British monarch is its Supreme Governor. In Scotland the Church of Scotland is the national church. It is not subject to state control, and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to "maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government " upon his or her accession. The Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and, because the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 before the partition of Ireland, there is no established church in Northern Ireland. Although there are no UK-wide data in the 2001 census on adherence to individual Christian denominations, it has been estimated that 62 per cent of Christians are Anglican, 13.5 per cent Catholic, 6 per cent Presbyterian, and 3.4 per cent Methodist, with smaller numbers of other denominations.