Religious affiliations in the UK 2021

FOI REF: FOI-2023-1325

You asked

I would like to request data pertaining to the different religious affiliations in the UK. I would like the numbers and percentages of each group. I am interested in 2019 and/or 2021.

We said

Thank you for your freedom of interest request regarding religious affiliation in the UK. 

We have provided a breakdown of the number and percentage of 58 religious groups in the associated download named 'Religion England and Wales 2021'. This data set is taken from the 2021 and 2011 England and Wales censuses. Unfortunately, we do not hold the requested data from 2019 as there was no census that year. 

We do not hold data for Northern Ireland or Scotland since their censuses are conducted independently by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA), National Records of Scotland (NRS) respectively. Their FOI teams can be contacted at info@nisra.gov.uk and dataprotection@nrscotland.gov.uk 

Scotland's Census was not undertaken until March 2022. The decision to delay their census did not impact on the Census in England and Wales, nor in Northern Ireland and we are working with NRS and the NISRA to ensure we continue to produce UK-wide population statistics. The release date for UK-wide statistics has not yet been agreed. 

However, it is recommended that UK comparisons are not made for religion using census data as the questions used in the censuses differ. Scotland and Northern Ireland censuses ask a question on 'belonging', whilst England and Wales ask about affiliation. It is important to note, the religion question in England and Wales and Scotland is voluntary.  

Should you have any questions about the information provided for England and Wales, our Census Customer Services team will be happy to assist at Census.customerservices@ons.gov.uk.