FOI REF: FOI-2023-1412
You asked
How many people living in the UK are immigrants or refugees? What is the biggest religion in the UK amongst this group?
We said
Thank you for your freedom of information request.
Detailed statistics on migration, derived from the 2021 Census for England and Wales, are available in the following publication: International Migration, England and Wales: Census 2021.
However, this release does not contain any religion statistics. The religion question is voluntary. In the census, religion refers to a person's religious affiliation. This is the religion with which they connect or identify, rather than their beliefs or active religious practice. As the question is voluntary, be cautious when comparing figures between different areas or between censuses because of varying response rates.
The Create a custom dataset' enables users to find and download multiple combinations of data they are most interested in. You can cross tabulate variables -- in this case religion by country of birth: Census 2021 Country of birth and religion.
The following output, also extracted from the create a custom dataset tool, details religion with a migrant indicator (Migrant from outside the UK: Address one year ago was outside the UK): Census 2021: Migrant indicator and religion.
Unfortunately, the Census does not collect statistics on refugees, so we do not hold the requested information on refugees by religious affiliation.
Should you require further guidance census.customerservices@ons.gov.uk can advise.
Our Census covered England and Wales only. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) conducted separate Censuses for Scotland and Northern Ireland. You may wish to contact these organisations for further information.