1. Measuring Religious Affiliation in Great Britain: The 2011 Census in Historical and Methodological Context
CLIVE D. FIELD
British Religion in Numbers
Institute for Social Change, University of Manchester
18 June 2013

2. Overview
Measurement of current religious affiliation (not beliefs, not practices)
Britain from Reformation to present day
Proxy-assigned or self-assigned
Adults (not children/adolescents)
Charting contributions of
Churches
State (especially census)
Empirical social science (sample surveys)
Effects of different question-wording
Against backdrop of changes between 2001 and 2011 censuses

3. Churches (1) – Before Second World War
Late 6th-early 16th century nominally Catholic
Post-Reformation nominally Anglican, underpinned by uniformity legislation
Notwithstanding, Nonconformist and Catholic minorities, albeit not tolerated until 1689 and 1791 respectively
General ecclesiastical censuses in England and Wales (1603, 1676), Scotland (1755), Ireland ( , )
Separate returns of Catholics in England and Wales ( , 1767, 1780)
Also local data (visitation returns from 1706 and other surveys)
Denominational statistics commence with Methodists in 1766 but not general until late 19th century
Inevitable variations in data quality, methodology and conceptualization

4. Churches (2) – Religious profile of whole population of England and Wales (%)
1680
1720
1760
1800
1840
Church of England 94 92 88 77
Nonconformist 4 7 5 10 20
Roman Catholic 1 3
Non-Christian *
No religion -

5. Churches (3) – Religious profile of adult population of Great Britain (%)
1914
1939
Church of England 61 55
Free Church/Presbyterian 28 29
Roman Catholic 9 11
Non-Christian 1
No religion 4

6. Churches (4) – Since Second World War
Denominational initiatives in 1950s/60s, especially Anglican, Catholic, Methodist
Ecumenical initiatives – British Council of Churches (1972), Inter-Churches Research Group ( ), Nationwide Initiative in Evangelism (1979)
Peter Brierley’s efforts through MARC Europe, Christian Research, Brierley Consultancy – but majoring on ministers, congregations, membership, attendance, not on religious affiliation and non-Christian faiths
Non-Christian efforts largely confined to Jews

7. State (1) – Until 1851
State’s limited statistics-gathering capacity until early Victorian era
Early exemplar Home Office return of non-Anglican places of worship in England and Wales, 1829
Census of religious profession in Ireland, 1834
London (later Royal) Statistical Society and others propose census of religious profession in Britain, 1841
Government-initiated voluntary census of religious accommodation and worship in Britain at 1851 census
Results of 1851 census spark bitter controversy between Church of England and Nonconformity

8. State (2) – 1851 to Second World War
Government proposes census of religious profession in Britain, but abandoned in face of Anglican-Nonconformist conflict
No Government proposal for census of religious profession in Britain but various unsuccessful Parliamentary attempts to legislate
Passage of (perpetual) Census Act 1920 – not explicitly providing for religious affiliation
But census of religious profession in Ireland from 1861 and in many British colonies and dependencies
Also Government collection of data on religious profession of soldiers, prisoners etc.

9. State (3) – Second World War to 2001
1961: census of religious profession proposed in Parliament but opposed by Government – question would be resented and results inaccurate
1971: census advisory committee considers census of religious profession in Britain but fails to prioritize it
1981: census of religious profession pushed by Bible Society and other Christian researchers but British Council of Churches fails to support campaign
1991: ethnicity makes it to census schedule but not religious affiliation, despite its inclusion in test among individuals from Indian sub-continent
2001: religious profession included in census following amendment of Census Act 1920

10. State (4) – 2001
Success follows more broadly-based campaign by academics, faith groups (including Jews and Muslims) and some Government departments from 1994
Success achieved in face of significant scepticism about utility of including religious affiliation on part of ONS
Government rationale for including religious affiliation as supplement to ethnicity – reflected in ordering of questions in census schedule
No differentiation within Christian category in England and Wales, while all but major religions had to be written in
Question revised to ‘what is your religion?’ following testing, which some regarded as ‘leading’
Question was voluntary
Significant element of proxy responses

11. State (5) – 2001 (results, Great Britain, %)
% share children
% share adults
% share all
No religion 19 15 16
Christian 63 73 71
Muslim 5 2 3
Other religion
Not stated 10 7 8

12. State (6) – 2011 (timeline)
Government routinely included religious affiliation in its large-scale surveys, notably Labour Force Survey from 2004
2005: ONS proposes religious affiliation as ‘category 1’ topic for 2011
: user consultation confirms importance of religious affiliation
: qualitative and quantitative testing of question
2008: Government proposes replication of voluntary question on religious affiliation, declining suggested user enhancements

13. State (7) – 2011 (tests – means, %)
Christian
Non-Christian
No religion
What is your religion or belief? 66 10 25
What is your religion? 76 8 17
What is your religion, even if not currently practising? 74 7 19
Do you regard yourself as belonging to a religion? 65 6 29
Which of these best describes you? 70 23

14. State (8) – 2011 (results, England and Wales, adults)
% share 2001
% share 2011
% change absolute numbers
No religion 14 24
+86
Christian 73 61 -8
Muslim 2 4
+77
Other religion 3
+41
Not stated 7 +8

15. Sample Surveys (1)
Public opinion polling in Britain commences 1937 through British Institute of Public Opinion (later Gallup Poll)
First question on self-identified religious affiliation asked 1943 and on many occasions since, but usually to analyse results of ‘morality’ topics by religion
Limited standardization of question-wording, categorization and running order of response codes
Sample sizes and construction generally do not permit reliable analysis of smaller Christian denominations and non-Christian faiths
Interviewing techniques have transitioned from face-to-face to telephone to online
Adults (15/16/18/21+) covered
Time series constructed for Gallup, NOP, BSA, BES, BHPS, ESS (academic), APS/IHS, Citizenship Survey, Taking Part (Government)

16. Free Church/Church of Scotland
Sample Surveys (2) – Gallup, (%) ‘What is your religious denomination?’
Church of England
Free Church/Church of Scotland
Roman Catholic
Other religion
No religion 51 23 11 6 9
1963 61 19 10 4
1974 14 8
1982 58
1996 53 12 16

17. Sample Surveys (3) – BSA, (%) ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion? Which?’
Church of England
Roman Catholic
Other denom. Christian
Undenom. Christian
Non-Christian
No religion 38 11 12 3 33 37 10 35 5 29 9 6 4 43 28 7 42 21 47

18. Sample Surveys (4) – APS/IHS, (%) ‘What is your religion, even if you are not currently practising?’ ( ), ‘What is your religion?’ ( )
Christian
Non-Christian
No religion 78 6 16 75 7 18 72 8 20
Q1-3 70 22 Q4 64 9 27 62 29

19. Sample Surveys (5) – Comparisons, c. 2011 (%)
Date
Agency
Christian
Non-Christian
No religion
CENSUS (E&W, adults)
What is your religion?
2011
ONS 66 8 26
SAMPLE SURVEYS
Which religion, if any, do you regard yourself as belonging to?
2010
ORB 53 39
Which of the following religious groups do you consider yourself to be a member of?
Populus 58 35
Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?
YouGov 41 6

20. Sample Surveys (6) – Comparisons, c. 2011 (%) contd.
Date
Agency
Christian
Non-Christian
No religion
What is your religion?
2011
YouGov 55 5 40
Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?
NatCen 44 7 49 45 48
What is your religion even if you are not currently practising?
2010
ONS 72 8 21 64 28

21. Conclusions
Master narrative clear – transition from society before French Revolution where little renunciation of religion to one where one- quarter to one-half no longer have religious identity
But religious affiliation encapsulates a spectrum of attachment, running from weak to strong, from a passive secularized ethno- culturalism to active religious ‘membership’
Different question-wordings trigger different understandings and misunderstandings of religious affiliation and produce different results – there is no single measure valid above all others, multiple quantitative indicators required to describe religious landscape
Debate beginning about whether taxonomic framework within which we are trying to categorize religious affiliation is outmoded

22. Contact Details
or Websites: and This presentation is an output from the RCUK Global Uncertainties Impact Support Fund, 2012/13