London (Daily Pakistan Online) According to the census data in Great Britain, for the first time in history, less than half of the population of England and Wales are Christians. The United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the Muslim population has grown rapidly in the 10-year census conducted in 2021. In England and Wales, the second highest number of people self-identified as having no religion, after Christians.
A religion question was added to the UK census in 2001 and its response was made voluntary rather than compulsory, but according to the ONS, 94% of people answered the religion question during the census. About 27.5 million people in England and Wales, or 46.2 percent, identified themselves as Christian, down 13.1 percent from 2011. According to the census results, the number of non-religious people increased by 12 points to 37.2 percent or 22.2 million, while the Muslim population stood at 3.9 million or 6.5 percent, up from 4.9 percent earlier. Apart from this, the number of Hindus in Britain is 1 million, Sikhs are 524 thousand, Buddhists are 273 thousand, while the number of Jews is 271 thousand.
