Two in five bought up as Christian have lost their faith
Two in five British people raised as Christians have lost their faith, a report has found.
The findings from the US-based Pew Research Centre come as weekly attendance at Church of England services continues to plummet from 1.6 million in the 1960s to 557,000 in 2023.
Considered together alongside attendance data and the latest census, the new figures further highlight how people in the UK are continuing to shift away from Christianity towards atheism and agnosticism.
They also indicate that being taken to church as a child does not guarantee that one will become a believer.
Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, said: 'Religious identity has been worn lightly in the UK for some time.
'Today's stats, like those of the Census, show the large population who don't believe in gods today feel much less tied to the religious label of their family, school, or community.'
The report showed that 42 per cent of Britons brought up to believe in Christianity are now atheist, agnostic or have converted to other faiths.
The research found similar trends in other Western countries including the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, France and Spain.
People in South Korea were the most likely to have abandoned Christianity, with 43 per cent saying they were no longer believers and 7 per cent having converted to another religion.
South Africans who grew up Christian most commonly switched to another religion by adulthood (11 per cent). That was followed by Singaporeans (5 per cent of former Christians) and Americans (4 per cent of former Christians).
Citizens of non-Western countries who were raised as Christians were overall much more likely to retain their faith.
In the Philippines, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Sri Lanka, more than 92 per cent of those raised Christian remained so into adulthood.
Some 98 per cent of Christian-raised people from Hungary still followed the religion, while in Poland it was slightly lower at 95 per cent.
The Pew Research Centre findings are consistent with the most recent UK census.
In 2001, some 72 per cent of people across England and Wales said they were Christians. Two decades later, that had declined to 46 per cent.
The second-largest group was people who said they did not have a religion, at 37 per cent, followed by followers of Islam on seven per cent.
Anglicanism remains the largest Christian denomination in Britain, followed by Roman Catholicism.
Pentecostal (plus 25 per cent), Orthodox (plus 11 per cent) and new churches (plus 10 per cent) have risen, capturing the enthusiasm of young and immigrant Christians.
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