The Church in Wales and Northern Ireland
As far as these two countries are concerned the majority of the population belongs to the Protestants. In Wales most people are the adherents of the Free Church. In Northern Ireland most of the population attends the Anglican, Free or other Protestant churches, and the Catholics constitute only a small minority.
The UK, in matters of religion and belief, is heterogeneous in a way unimaginable to previous generations. The 2001 census found that 76.8% of the UK population had a religion.
| religionNB2 | 2001 | 2011 |
| Christians 1 | 80% | 59.5% |
| Muslims | 11% (one of the largest Muslim communities in the world, 600 mosques and prayer centres) | 4.4% |
| Sikhs | 4% | 0.7% |
| Hindus | 2% (150 Hindu temples) | 1.3% |
| Jews | 1% | 0.4% |
| Buddhists | 0.8% | 0.4% |
| No religion | 41.2% | 25.7% |
1 –Other Christian denominations:
P Roman Catholics - 21 %
P Anglicans (England) - 20%
P Presbyterians (Scotland)- 14%
P Methodists (Wales) - 5%
P Baptists - 3%
P Northern Ireland: Protestants - 60%, Catholics - 40%
NB2! An Office for National Statistics survey of 450,000 Britons in 2010 found that 71% are Christian, 4% are Muslim and 21% have no religious affiliation.
III. The Non-Christian religions of the UK
Religions other than Christianity have established a presence in the UK, both through immigration and by attracting converts. The non-Christian religions and faiths include:
! Islam
NB! The vast majority of Muslims in the UK live in England and Wales: of 1,591,000 Muslims recorded at the 2001 Census, 1,536,015 were living in England and Wales, where they form 3% of the population; 42,557 were living in Scotland, forming 0.84% of the population; and 1,943 were living in Northern Ireland.
Most Muslim immigrants to the UK came from former colonies. The biggest groups of Muslims are of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian origin, with the remainder coming from Muslim-dominated areas such as Southwest Asia, Somalia, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
! Hinduism
! Sikhism
! Jainism
! Judaism
! Buddhism, etc.
The UK can also boast the rise of some new religions and the revival of the old ones. Some unusual religions include:
¥ Rastafarian Movement
¥ Baha’i Faith
¥ Neo-Paganism
¥ Jediism (rose on the peak of popularity of the Star Wars series), etc.
NB! Although the Census 2001 also recorded 390,000 Jedi Knights, making Jedi ( джедай ) the fourth-largest "religion" in the UK, this does not confer them any official recognition. In fact, all returns with "Jedi Knight" were classified as "No religion", along with Atheist, Agnostic, Heathen (= Pagan - язычник) and those who ticked "Other" but did not write in any religion.
Lecture 5: System of Education in the UK