Humanists

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Opinion Polls

UK ATHEISTS INCREASE

A survey published in November 2000 shows that the number of people identifying themselves as atheist in the UK continues to increase.

The 17th report on British Social Attitudes states that only 27% said they ‘belonged’ to the Church of England compared to 40% in 1983 and in the same period the proportion of people who say they belong to no religion has grown from 31% to 44%. Less than half say they “believe in God and always have done”.

The Netherlands comes top of the league, where 42% are religious adherents, with Britain second. In the United States it is 83% and in Italy 92%.

George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, says “A tacit atheism prevails”.

A Church of England Attendance Survey published in 1999 showed that while belief in a personal God declined from 43 per cent in the 1950s to 31 per cent in the nineties, disbelief in God rose from 2 per cent to 27 per cent over the same period.

The mainstream Christian denominations - Anglican, Catholic, Methodist and United Reform, are all steadily losing adherents.

Particularly galling for Church leaders who launched the much trumpeted “decade of evangelism” in 1991 to boost church numbers, is the finding that attendance of young worshippers has dropped drastically. Only 5% of people in their twenties are churchgoers.