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The 2001 census²found that 76.8% of the U.K. population had a religion. Surveys that employ a “harder” question tend to find lower proportions. The British Social Attitudes Survey³survey, produced by the National Centre for Social Research in the same year, reported that 58% considered themselves to “belong to” a religion. An Ipsos MORI poll in 2003 reported that 43% considered themselves to be “a member of an organised religion”. In the 2001 census Christianity was the largest religion, being designated by 71.6% of respondents. The 2007 Tearfund Survey which revealed that 53% identified themselves as Christian and the 2007 British Social Attitudes Survey, found that it was almost 47.5%. The E.U.-funded European Social Survey published in April 2009 found that only 12% of British people belong to a church.

The 2007 British Social Attitudes Survey, which covers England, Wales and Scotland, but not Northern Ireland, indicated that 20.87% were part of the Church of England, 10.25% non-denominational Christian, 9.01% Roman Catholic⁴, 2.81% Presbyterian⁵/Church of Scotland, 1.88% Methodist⁶, 0.88% Baptist⁷, other Protestant⁸1.29%, URC/Congregational⁹0.32%, 0.08% Free Presbyterian, Brethren 0.05% and 0.37% other Christian.

Religions other than Christianity: Islam¹⁰, Hinduism¹¹, Sikhism¹²and Judaism¹³have established a presence in the U.K., all through immigration and by attracting converts, including the Bahá’í Faith, Rastafari movement and Neopaganism. In the 2001 census 3.30% were Muslim, 1.37% Hindu, 0.43% Jewish, 0.37% Sikh and others 0.35%.

There are also organisations which promote rationalism, humanism, atheism and secularism¹⁴. The U.K. has a large and growing non-religious population with 13 626 000（23.2% of the U.K. population） either claiming no religion （15.1%） or not answering the question on religion at the 2001 census. According to the British Humanist Association 36% of the population is humanist, and may, by the same token, be considered outright atheist.

The Anglican Communion

In England the （Anglican） Church of England is the Established Church: the church is represented in the U.K. Parliament and the British monarch is a member of the church（required under Article 2 of the Treaty of Union） as well as its Supreme Governor. The Church of England also has the right to draft legislative measures （related to religious administration） through the General Synod¹⁵that can then be passed into law by Parliament.

The Church of England is the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Scottish Episcopal Church, which is part of the Anglican Communion （but not a “daughter church” of the Church of England）, dates from the final establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1690, when it split from the Church of Scotland. In the 1920s, the Church in Wales became disestablished and independent from the Church of England but remains in the Anglican Communion.

Presbyterianism and Congregationalism

In Scotland the Presbyterian Church of Scotland （known informally as The Kirk）, is recognised as the national church. It is not subject to state control and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to “maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government” upon his or her accession. Splits in the Church of Scotland, especially in the 19th century, led to the creation of various other Presbyterian churches in Scotland, including the Free Church of Scotland, which claims to be the constitutional continuator of the Church in Scotland and was founded in 1843. The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed in 1893 by some who left the Free Church over alleged weakening of her position and likewise claims to be the spiritual descendant of the Scottish Reformation. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales was founded in the late 1980s and declared themselves to be a Presbytery in 1996. They currently have ten churches. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland is the largest Protestant denomination and second largest church in Northern Ireland. The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster wasfounded on 17 March 1951 by the cleric and politician, Ian Paisley. It has about 60 churches in Northern Ireland. The Presbyterian Church of Wales seceded from the Church of England in 1811 and formally formed itself into a separate body in 1823. The Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland has 31 congregations in Northern Ireland, with the first Presbytery being formed in Antrim in 1725.

The United Reformed Church （URC）, a union of Presbyterian and Congregational churches, consists of about 1 500 congregations in England, Scotland and Wales. There are about 600 Congregational churches in the U.K.. In England there are three main groups, the Congregational Federation, the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, and about 100 Congregational churches that are loosely federated with other congregations in the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, or are unaffiliated. In Scotland the churches are mostly member of the Congregational Federation and in Wales which traditionally has a larger number of Congregationalists, most are members of the Union of Welsh Independents.

The Roman Catholic Church has separate national organisations for England and Wales, for Scotland and for Ireland, which means there is no single hierarchy for Roman Catholicism in the United Kingdom. The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is the second largest Christian church with around five million members, mainly in England. There is however a single apostolic nuncio to Great Britain, presently Archbishop Antonio Mennini. The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland is Scotland’s second largest Christian church, representing a sixth of the population. The Apostolic Nuncio to the island of Ireland （both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland） is Giuseppe Leanza. Eastern Rite Catholics in the United Kingdom are served by their own clergy and do not belong to the Roman Catholic dioceses but are still in full communion with the Bishop of Rome.

The Methodist movement traces its origin to the evangelical awakening in the 18th century. Today, the Methodist Church of Great Britain, （which includes congregations in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Malta and Gibraltar） has around 270 000 members and 6 000 churches, though only around 3 000 members in 50 congregations are in Scotland. In the 1960s, it made ecumenical overtures to the Church of England, aimed at church unity. Formally, these failed when they were rejected by the Church of England’s General Synod in 1972. However, conversations and co-operation continued, leading on 1 November 2003 to the signing of a covenant between the two churches. The Methodist Church in Ireland covers thewhole of the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland where it is the fourth largest denomination.

The Baptist Union of Great Britain—despite its name, covers just England and Wales. There is a separate Baptist Union of Scotland and the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland is an all-Ireland organisation.

Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches

Assemblies of God in Great Britain are part of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship with over 600 churches in Great Britain. Assemblies of God Ireland cover the whole of the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland. The Apostolic Church commenced in the early part of the 20th century in South Wales and now has over 110 churches across the U.K.. Elim Pentecostal Church now has over 500 churches across the U.K..

There is also a growing number of independent, charismatic churches that encourage Pentecostal practices as part of their worship. These are broadly grouped together as the British New Church Movement and could number up to 400 000 members. The phenomenon of immigrant churches and congregations that began with the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush from the West Indies in 1948 stands as a unique trend. West Indian congregations that started from this time include the Church of God, New Testament Assembly and New Testament Church of God.

Africans began to arrive in the early 1980s and established their own congregations. Foremost among these are Matthew Ashimolowo from Nigeria and his Kingsway International Christian Centre in London that may be the largest church in Western Europe.

Latin American congregations such as Brazilian and Spanish-speaking churches were planted in the nineties, many of which were initially satellite churches of Kensington Temple.

Korean churches also sprang up especially in New Malden, Surrey, where there is a large and growing community of South Koreans.

Eastern Orthodox Churches

The Russian Orthodox Church—the Diocese of Sourozh covers Great Britain and Ireland. Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia also has a diocese that covers Great Britain and Ireland. The Greek Orthodox Church—Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, led by His Eminence Gregorios, covers England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland as well as Malta. The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch has 14 parishes and 8 missions within the Deanery of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Oriental Orthodox Churches

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria has two regional Dioceses in the United Kingdom: the Diocese of Ireland, Scotland, North East England and its Affiliated Areas which is led by His Grace Bishop Antony of Newcastle and the Diocese of the Midlands and its Affiliated Areas which is led by His Grace Bishop Missael of Birmingham. There is also （part of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate） the British Orthodox Church, （its mission is to the people of the British Isles） which is led by His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim of Glastonbury. In addition, there is one General Bishop in Stevenage, His Grace Bishop Angelos. There are many Coptic Orthodox Churches in the United Kingdom that are directly the responsibility of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria. There is also the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church in London.

The first missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to proselyte in the British Isles arrived in 1837. By 1900 as many as 100 000 converts had joined the faith, but most of these early members promptly emigrated to the United States to join the main body of the church. Beginning in the 1950s emigration to the United States began to be discouraged and local congregations began to proliferate. Today the church claims just over 186 000 members across the United Kingdom, spread out across over 330 local congregations. The church also maintains two temples in England, the first being built in the London area in the 1950s, and the second completed in 1998 in Preston and known as the Preston England Temple. Preston is also the site of the first preaching by the missionaries in 1837, and is home to the oldest continually existing Latter Day Saint congregation anywhere in the world. Restored 1994-2000, the Gadfield Elm Chapel in Worcestershire is the oldest extant chapel of the LDS Church.

Other Christian Denominations

The Britain Yearly Meeting is the umbrella body for the Religious Society of Friends（Quakers） in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man. There are 25 000 worshippers with about 400 local meetings. Northern Ireland comes under the umbrella of the Ireland Yearly Meeting. The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the U.K.. The Unitarian Christian Association was formed in 1991. Other denominations and groups include The Salvation Army, founded in 1865, Plymouth Brethren,

Newfrontiers, Jehovah’s Witnesses, which in 2011 had 135 823 publishers in the U.K., the

Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Seventh Day Baptists.

Though Islam was not legalised until the Trinitarian Act in 1812, recent estimates suggest a total of as high as 2.4 million Muslims over all the U.K.. According to Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the number of Muslims in Britain could be up to 2.9 million. The vast majority of Muslims in the U.K. 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. Between 2001 and 2009, the Muslim population increased roughly 10 times faster than the rest of society.

Most Muslim immigrants to the U.K. 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. During the 18th century, lascars （sailors） who worked for the British East India Company settled in port towns with local wives. These numbered only 24 037 in 1891 but 51 616 on the eve of World War One. Naval cooks, including Sake Dean Mahomet, also came from what is now the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh. From the 1950s onwards, the growing Muslim population has led to a number of notable Mosques being established, including Manchester Central Mosque, East London Mosque, London Markaz, London Central Mosque and, more recently, Baitul Futuh Mosque.

According to a Labour Force Survey estimate, the total number of Muslims in Great Britain in 2008 was 2 422 000, around 4% of the total population. The single largest age-cohort in the Christian population is in those over 70 years of age. Between 2004 and 2008, the Muslim population grew by more than 500 000. In 2010, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated 2 869 000 Muslims in Great Britain. The largest age-bracket within the British Muslim population were those under the age of 4, at 301 000 in September 2008. The Muslim Council of Britain is an umbrella organisation for many local, regional and specialist Islamic organisations in the U.K..

Hinduism was the religion of 558 342 people in Great Britain according to the 2001 census but an estimate in a British newspaper in 2007 has put the figure as high as 1.5 million. One Non-governmental organisation estimated as of 2007 that there are 800 000 Hindus in the U.K.. Although most British Hindus live in England, with half living in London alone, small communities also exist in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

In the 2001 census, 390 000 individuals, （0.7 per cent of total respondents） self-identified as followers of the Jedi faith, created as part of the narrative structure of the Star Wars science-fiction movie series. This Jedi census phenomenon followed an internet campaign that stated, incorrectly, that the Jedi belief system would receive official government recognition as a religion if it received enough support in the census. An email in support of the campaign, quoted by BBC News, invited people to “do it because you love Star Wars...or just to annoy people”.

The Jewish Naturalisation Act, enacted in 1753, permitted the naturalisation of foreign Jews, but was repealed the next year. The first graduate from the University of Glasgow who was openly-known to be Jewish was in 1787. Unlike their English contemporaries, Scottish students were not required to take a religious oath. In 1841 Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was made baronet, the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. The first Jewish Lord Mayor of the City of London, Sir David Salomons, was elected in 1855, followed by the 1858 emancipation of the Jews. On 26 July 1858, Lionel de Rothschild was finally allowed to sit in the British House of Commons when the law restricting the oath of office to Christians was changed. （Benjamin Disraeli, a baptised, teenage convert to Christianity of Jewish parentage, was already a Member of Parliament at this time and rose to become Prime Minister in 1874.） In 1884 Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild became the first Jewish member of the British House of Lords; again Disraeli was already a member.

Today, British Jews number around 300 000 with the U.K. having the fifth largest Jewish community worldwide. However, this figure did not include Jews who identified “by ethnicity only” in England and Wales or Scottish Jews who identified as Jewish by upbringing but held no current religion. A report in August 2007 by University of Manchester historian Dr Yaakov Wise stated that 75% of all births in the Jewish community were to ultra-orthodox, Haredi parents, and that the increase of ultra-orthodox Jewry has led to a significant rise in the proportion of British Jews who are ultra-orthodox. However various studies suggest thatwithin some Jewish communities and particularly in some strictly Orthodox areas, many residents ignored the voluntary question on religion following the advice of their religious leaders resulting in a serious undercount, therefore it is impossible to give an accurate number on the total U.K. Jewish population. It may be even more than double the official estimates, heavily powered by the very high birth rate of orthodox families and British people who are Jewish by race but not religion; as it currently stands, the Jewish as a race section is not documented on the census.

Sikhism was recorded as the religion of 336 179 people in the United Kingdom at the time of the 2001 census. While England is home to the majority of Sikhs in the U.K., small communities also exist in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The first recorded Sikh settler in the U.K. was Maharaja Duleep Singh, dethroned and exiled in 1849 at the age of 14, after the Anglo-Sikh wars. The first Sikh Gurdwara （temple） was established in 1911, in Putney, London. The first wave of Sikh migration came in the 1950s, mostly of men from the Punjab seeking work in industries such as foundries and textiles. These new arrivals mostly settled in London, Birmingham and West Yorkshire. Thousands of Sikhs from East Africa followed.

The earliest Buddhist influence on Britain came through its imperial connections with South East Asia, and as a result the early connections were with the Theravada traditions of Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The tradition of study resulted in the foundation of the Pali Text Society, which undertook the task of translating the Pali Canon of Buddhist texts into English. Buddhism as a path of practice was pioneered by the Theosophists, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, and in 1880 they became the first Westerners to receive the refuges and precepts, the ceremony by which one traditionally becomes a Buddhist.

In 1924 London’s Buddhist Society was founded, and in 1926 the Theravadin London Buddhist Vihara. The rate of growth was slow but steady through the century, and the 1950s saw the development of interest in Zen Buddhism. In 1967 Kagyu Samyé Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre, now the largest Tibetan Buddhist centre in Western Europe, was founded in Scotland. The first home-grown Buddhist movement was also founded in 1967, the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order （now the Triratna Buddhist Community）. There are some Sōka Gakkai groups in the U.K..

In the 2001 census, a total of 42 262 people from England, Scotland, and Wales declared themselves to be Pagans or adherents of Wicca. However, other surveys have led to estimates of around 250 000 or even higher.

The Bahá’í Faith in the United Kingdom has a historical connection with the earliest phases of the Bahá’í Faith starting in 1845 and has had a major effect on the development of communities of the religion in far flung nations around the world. It is estimated that between 1951 and 1993, Bahá’ís from the United Kingdom settled in 138 countries. There are about 5000 Bahá’ís in the U.K..

Leicester houses one of the world’s few Jain temples that are outside of India. There is an Institute of Jainology at Greenford, London.