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Religion in England is characterised by a variety of beliefs and practices that has historically been dominated byChristianity. Christianity remains the largest religion, though it makes up less than half of the population. As of the2021 census, there is an increasing variety of beliefs, with irreligious people outnumbering each of the other religions. TheChurch of England is the nation's establishedstate church, whosesupreme governor is themonarch.

Other Christian traditions in England includeRoman Catholicism,Methodism,Presbyterianism,Mormonism, and theBaptists. After Christianity, the religions with the most adherents areIslam,Hinduism,Sikhism,Judaism,Buddhism,modern paganism, and theBahá'í Faith.^[2] There are also organisations promotingirreligion, includinghumanism andatheism. In the 2021 census,Shamanism was the fastest growing religion in England.^[3]

Many of England's most notable buildings and monuments are religious in nature:Westminster Abbey,Canterbury Cathedral andSt Paul's Cathedral. The festivals ofChristmas andEaster are widely celebrated in the country.

The 2001 and 2011 censuses did not include on adherence to individual Christian denominations, since they were asked only in the Scottish and Northern Ireland censuses and not in England and Wales.^[4] Using the same principle as applied in the 2001 census, a 2008 survey byIpsos MORI and based on a scientifically robust sample, found the population of England and Wales to be 47.0% affiliated with theChurch of England, which is also thestate church, 9.6% with theRoman Catholic Church.^[5]

8.7% were other Christians, mainlyFree churchProtestants andEastern Orthodox. Muslims were 4.8% and 3.4% members of other religions. 5.3% were agnostics, 6.8% were atheists and 15.0% were not sure about their religious affiliation or did not answer the question.^[5]

Saint George is recognised as thepatron saint of England and theflag of England consists ofhis cross. Prior toEdward III, the patron saint wasSt Edmund.St Alban is also honoured as England'sfirst martyr. Other notable saints from the early period of Christianity in England includeSaint Ethelbert and SaintMorwenna.

Theestablished church of the realm is theChurch of England, whosesupreme governor is theBritish monarch, currentlyKing Charles III. In practice, the church is governed by its bishops under the authority ofParliament. Twenty-six of the church's 42 bishops areLords Spiritual, representing the church in theHouse of Lords. The dioceses of England are divided between thetwo provinces ofCanterbury andYork, both of whose archbishops are consideredprimates.

The church regards itself as the continuation of the Catholic church introduced bySt Augustine's late6th-century mission toKent as part of theChristianisation of Anglo-Saxon England, although this is disputed owing to procedural and doctrinal changes introduced by the 16th-centuryEnglish Reformation, particularly theThirty-Nine Articles of Religion and theBook of Common Prayer. In 2010, the Church of England counted 25 million baptised members out of the 41 million Christians in Great Britain's population of about 60 million.^[10][11] In 2009, it claimed to baptise one in eight newborn children.^[12]

In 2018, research conducted byYouGov found that 56% of Christians in England identified as members of the Church of England. The same study found that 63% of those identifying with the Church of England "never or hardly" attend church.^[13] Generally, anyone in England may marry or be buried at their localparish church, whether or not they have been baptised in the church.^[14] Actual attendance has declined steadily since 1890,^[15] with around one million, or 10% of the baptised population attending Sunday services on a regular basis, defined as once a month or more. Three million- roughly 15%- join Christmas Eve and Christmas services.^[16] In 2012, there were around18 000 active and ordained clergy.^[17]

TheFree Church of England is another Anglican denomination which separated from the Church of England in the 19th century in opposition to shifts in doctrine and ceremony which brought the established church closer to Roman Catholicism. The Free Church of England is in communion with theReformed Episcopal Church in theUnited States andCanada.

TheCatholic Church in England and Wales is directed by theCatholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, whose current president isVincent Nichols, theArchbishop of Westminster. To highlight the historical Catholic continuity of Nichols' office, dating back to Pope Gregory I's appointment of St. Augustine and that pope's sequent bestowal of the pallium on the appointee, the installation rites of pre-Reformation Catholic Archbishops of Canterbury and earlier Archbishops of Westminster were used at his installation as Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.^[18][19][20]

In 1851, the Catholic Church was formerly forbidden from using the names of the Anglican dioceses by theEcclesiastical Titles Act. It is divided amongfive provinces headed by the archbishops of Westminster,Liverpool,Birmingham, andSouthwark in England andCardiff in Wales. The Catholic Church considers itself a continuation of the earliestCeltic Christian communities, although its formal hierarchy needed to be refounded by theGregorian mission to theSaxon kingdoms in the 6th and 7th centuries and again following theEnglish Reformation.^[21]

In 1766,Papal recognition ofGeorge III as the legitimate ruler of Great Britain opened the way for theCatholic Emancipation, easing and ultimately eliminating theanti-CatholicPenal Laws andTest Acts. This process sometimes faced great popular opposition, as during the 1780Gordon Riots in London.Daniel O'Connell was the first Catholicmember of Parliament.^[22] Considering the "actual condition of Catholicism in England," the number of Catholics, and the obstacles "removed which chiefly opposed" it,Pope Pius IX issued in 1850 thebullUniversalis Ecclesiae to restore "the normal diocesan hierarchy."^[23] More recently, theroyal family has been permitted to marry Roman Catholics without fear of being disqualified from succession to the throne.^[24]

The number of Catholics peaked in the 1960s, but has been on a gradual decline ever since.^[25] Recent immigration from Catholic countries, particularlyPoland andLithuania, has slowed the church's decline.^[26] Polling in 2009 suggested there were about 5.2 million Catholics in England and Wales, about 9.6% of the population,^[27] concentrated in thenorthwest. In 2018, research conducted byYouGov found that 17% of all Christians in England identified as Catholic.^[28] In 2007, some studies showed that weekly attendance at Catholic masses exceeded that of the Anglican services.^[26]

No other church in England has more than a million members, with most quite small.

Pentecostal churches are growing and, in terms of church attendance, are now third after the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.^[29] There are three main denominations of Pentecostal churches: theAssemblies of God in Great Britain (part of theWorld Assemblies of God Fellowship), theApostolic Church, and theElim Pentecostal Church.Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society ofevangelical churches, founded in 1783, which today has 23 congregations in England. There is also a growing number of independent,charismatic churches that encourage Pentecostal practices at part of their worship, such asKingsgate Community Church inPeterborough, which started with 9 people in 1988 and now has a congregation in excess of 1,500.

Various forms of Protestantism developed from the ferment of theEnglish Civil War onwards. TheQuakers (formally, the Religious Society of Friends) were founded byGeorge Fox in the 1640s. Following theGreat Ejection of 1662, about a tenth of Church of England ministers gave up their livings to lead the newly formeddissenting churches. Notable dissenting groups were thePresbyterians, theIndependents (orCongregationalists) and theBaptists. In the 18th century some Presbyterians favoured ideas known asRational Dissent which evolved into, among others,Unitarianism, which still has more than 100 congregations in the 21st century.

Methodism developed from the 18th century onwards. The Methodist revival was started in England by a group of men includingJohn Wesley and his younger brotherCharles as a movement within the Church of England, but developed as a separate denomination after John Wesley's death. The primary church in England is theMethodist Church of Great Britain. TheSalvation Army dates back to 1865, when it was founded in East London byWilliam andCatherine Booth. Its international headquarters are still in London, near St Paul's Cathedral. There is oneMennonite congregation in England, theWood Green Mennonite Church in London.^[30]

MostGreek Orthodox Church parishes fall under the jurisdiction of theArchdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, based in London and led by Nikitas,^[31] theArchbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain. Created in 1932, it is the diocese of theEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople that covers England, Wales and Scotland. A Greek Orthodox community already existed at the time the UK was formed, worshipping in the Imperial Russian Embassy in London. in 1837, an autonomous community was set up in Finsbury Park in London. In 1850, the first new church was built, on London Street in the city.

In 1882, St Sophia Cathedral was constructed in London, in order to cope with the growing influx of Orthodox immigrants. By the outbreak ofWorld War I, there were large Orthodox communities in London,Manchester and Liverpool, each focused on its own church.World War II and its aftermath also saw a large expansion among the Orthodox Communities. Today, there areseven churches bearing the title of Cathedral in London as well as inBirmingham (theDormition of the Mother of God and St Andrew) andLeicester.

In addition to these, there are eighty-one churches and other places where worship is regularly offered, twenty-five places (including university chaplaincies) where the divine liturgy is celebrated on a less regular basis, four chapels (including that of the Archdiocese), and two monasteries.^[32] As is traditional within the Orthodox Church, the bishops have a considerable degree ofautonomy within the Archdiocese. TheGreek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas inToxteth, Liverpool, was built in 1870. It is an enlarged version ofSt Theodore's church inConstantinople and is a Grade IIListed building.

There areRussian Orthodox groups in England. In 1962,Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh founded and was for many years the bishop, archbishop and thenmetropolitan bishop of the diocese of theRussian Orthodox Diocese of Sourozh, the Moscow Patriarchate's diocese for Great Britain and Ireland.^[33] It is the most numerous Russian Orthodox group in the country. There are also theRussian Orthodox Church Outside Russia churches and some churches and communities belonging to thePatriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe'sEpiscopal Vicariate in the UK.

As well as the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches, there are also theSerbian Orthodox Church and theUkrainian Orthodox Church all in London and a non-canonicalBelarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Manchester. TheAntiochian Orthodox Church have theSt. George's Cathedral in London and a number of parishes across England.^[34]

AllCoptic Orthodox parishes fall under the jurisdiction of theCoptic Orthodox Church of AlexandriaPope of Alexandria. TheCoptic Orthodox Church in Britain and Ireland is divided into three main districts: Ireland, Scotland, andNorth England; theMidlands and its affiliated areas; andSouth Wales. There is one Patriarchal Exarchate atStevenage,Hertfordshire. Most British converts belong to theBritish Orthodox Church, which is canonically part of the Coptic Orthodox Church. There is also theEritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and theEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in London. There is also theArmenian Apostolic Church in London.

At the2021 United Kingdom census, 3,801,186 Muslims lived in England, or 6.7% of the population. The Muslim population had grown by over a million compared to the 2011 census.^[36]

At the 2011 Census, 2.7 million Muslims lived in England, where they formed 5.0% of the population.^[7]

AlthoughIslam is generally thought of as being a recent arrival to the country, there has been contact with Muslims for many centuries. One example is the decision ofOffa, an eighth-century King ofMercia, one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existing at that time, to have coins minted with an Islamic inscription on them—copies of coins issued by the near-contemporary Muslim rulerAl-Mansur. It is thought that they were minted to facilitate trade with the expandingIslamic empire inSpain.^[37]

Muslim scholarship was well known among the learned in England by 1386, whenChaucer was writing. In the Prologue to theCanterbury Tales, there is among the pilgrims wending their way to Canterbury, a 'Doctour of Phisyk' whose learning includedRazi,Avicenna (Ibn Sina,Arabic ابن سينا) andAverroes (Ibn Rushd, Arabic ابن رشد). Ibn Sina's canon of medicine was a standard text for medical students well into the 17th century.

Today Islam is the second largest religion in England. In 2011, about 38% of English Muslims lived inLondon, where they made up 12.4% of the population. There are also large numbers of Muslims inBirmingham,Manchester,Bradford,Luton,Slough,Leicester and themill towns of Northern England such as Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Oldham.^[7]

Notable mosques include theEast London Mosque,London Central Mosque,Al-Rahma Mosque,Jamea Masjid,Birmingham Central Mosque,Finsbury Park Mosque,Al Mahdi Mosque,London Markaz andMarkazi Mosque.

Until the 20th century,Judaism was the only noticeable non-Christian religion having first appeared in historical records during theNorman Conquest of 1066. From 1290 to 1656, Judaism did not officially exist in England due to an outright expulsion in 1290 and official restrictions that were not lifted until 1656, though historical records show that some Jews came back to England during the early part of the 17th century prior to the lifting of the restriction. Now, the presence of the Jewish culture and Jews in England today is one of the largest in the world.

TheBaháʼí Faith started with the earliest mentions of the predecessor of the Baháʼí Faith, theBáb, inThe Times in November 1845, only a little over a year after the Báb first stated his mission.^[38] Today there are Baháʼí communities across the country fromCarlisle^[39] toCornwall.^[40]

Early Hindus in England were mostly students during the 19th century. There have been three waves of migration of Hindus to England since then.

BeforeIndia's Independence in 1947, Hindu migration was minuscule and largely temporary. In the 1970s, a second wave of Hindu migration occurredafter the expulsion of Hindus from Uganda. Initially, Hindu immigration was limited toPunjabi and Gujarati Hindus, but, by 2000, small Hindu communities of every ethnicity were found in England.

England is also host to a large immigrant community ofSri Lankan Hindus who are mostlyTamils. The latest wave of migration of Hindus has been taking place since the 1990s, with refugees from Sri Lanka and professionals from India. There are an increasing number of English Western Hindus in England, who have either converted from another faith or been an English Hindu from birth.

In 1911, the first SikhGurdwara (temple) was established at Putney in London.

The first wave of Sikh migration came in the 1950s. It was mostly of men from the Punjab seeking work in industries like foundries and textiles. These new arrivals mostly settled inLondon, Birmingham and West Yorkshire. Thousands of Sikhs from East Africa soon followed. This mass immigration was caused byIdi Amin's persecution of ethnic groups in Uganda, with thousands forced to flee the region in fear of losing their lives.^{[citation needed]}

The earliest Buddhist influence on England came through the UK's imperial connections withSouth East Asia, and as a result the early connections were with theTheravada traditions ofSri Lanka,Burma andThailand. In the 1880s, a tradition of study resulted in the foundation of thePali Text Society, which undertook the task of translating thePali Canon of Buddhist texts into English.

In 1924, London'sBuddhist Society was founded, and in 1926 the TheravadinLondon Buddhist Vihara. The rate of growth was slow but steady through the 20th century. The 1950s saw a growing interest inZen Buddhism.

In the 1970s, a Theravāda monastic order of mainly Westerners following theThai Forest Tradition ofAjahn Chah was established atChithurst Buddhist Monastery inWest Sussex, and established branches monasteries elsewhere in the country.

At the 2011 census, 75,281 people in England identified as Pagan, doubling since the 2001 census.^[41]Paganism in England is dominated byWicca, founded in England, the modern movement ofDruidry, and forms ofHeathenry.

Wicca was developed in England in the first half of the 20th century.^[43] Although it had various terms in the past, from the 1960s the name of the religion was normalised toWicca.^[44]

Heathenry is a modern revival ofGermanic paganism practised in the British Isles by the Anglo-Saxon and Norse peoples prior toChristianisation. In the 2011 Census, 1,867 people identified specifically as 'Heathen', in addition to those who identified more broadly as 'Pagan'.^[41] The largest inclusive Heathen organisation that operates in England isAsatru UK. Although lacking official membership statistics, in February 2022 it had 3,177 members of its Facebook group.^[45]

In theIron Age,Celtic polytheism was the predominant religion in the area now known as England.Neo-Druidism grew out of the Celtic revival in 18th-century Romanticism. At the 2011 census, there were 4,189 Druids in England and Wales.^[46] A 2012 analysis by theOrder of Bards, Ovates and Druids estimates that there are between 6,000 and 11,000 Druids in Britain.^[47]

Other religions include:^[48]

These faiths, all of which are considered to bepagan, have all been predominant in the regions that later made up England, though were all made extinct throughChristianisation.^{[citation needed]}

Gallo-Roman religion formed when theRoman Empire invaded and occupied theBrythonic peoples. Elements of the native BrythonicCeltic religion such as thedruids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain,^[51] were outlawed by Claudius,^[52] and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey).^[53]

Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such asAncasta, but often conflated them with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos atNettleham. The founding of a temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt ofBoudica.

Eastern cults such asMithraism grew in popularity towards the end of Roman occupation. London'sTemple of Mithras is one example of the popularity ofmystery religions among the rich urban classes.

In theEarly Middle Ages, immigrants from the European continent arrived, bringingAnglo-Saxon paganism, a subset ofGermanic paganism with them. After most of the Anglo-Saxon peoples had converted toChristianity,Vikings fromScandinavia arrived, bringing with themNorse paganism.

The varied religious, denominational, racial, and ethnic history of England has left a wide range of religious buildings—churches,cathedrals,chapels,chapels of ease,synagogues,mosques,gurdwaras,shrines,temples, andkingdom halls. Besides its spiritual importance, the religious architecture includes buildings of importance to the tourism industry and local pride.

As a result of the Reformation, the ancient cathedrals remained in the possession of the then-established churches, while most Roman Catholic churches date from Victorian times or are of more recent construction. In Liverpool the ultra-modernRoman Catholic cathedral was actually completed before the more traditionalAnglican cathedral, whose construction took most of the twentieth century. Notable places of worship include, but are not limited to:

In 2021, 36.7% of people in England declaredno religion, compared with 24.7% in 2011 and 14.6% in 2001. These figures are slightly lower than the combined figures for England and Wales, as Wales has a higher level of irreligion than England.^[7]Brighton and Hove had the highest such proportion at 55.2%, followed byNorwich at 53.5%,Bristol andHastings at 51.4%^[54]

• Religion in Birmingham
• Religion in London
• Religion in the United Kingdom

History:

• Acts of Supremacy
• Disestablishmentarianism
• Dissolution of the Monasteries
• Gunpowder Plot
• History of the Church of England
• Religion in Victorian England
• Putting away of Books and Images Act 1549
• Wembley’s Conference of Living Religions 1924

• Reassessing what we collect website History of minority religions in London with objects and images

• Bebbington, David W.Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (Routledge, 2003)
• Chadwick, Owen,The Victorian Church: Vol 1 1829–1859 (1966);Victorian Church: Part two 1860–1901 (1979); a major scholarly survey;vol 1 online also seeonline vol 2

• Davie, Grace.Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without belonging (Blackwell, 1994)
• Davies, Rupert E. et al.A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain (3 vol. Wipf & Stock, 2017).online
• Gilley, Sheridan, and W. J. Sheils.A History of Religion in Britain: Practice and Belief from Pre-Roman Times to the Present (1994) 608pp

• Hastings, Adrian.A History of English Christianity: 1920–1985 (1986) 720pp a major scholarly survey
• Hylson-Smith, Kenneth.The churches in England from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II (1996).
• Marienberg, Evyatar.Religion in England from Prehistoric Times to the Early 1980s: With a special emphasis, when relevant, on Catholicism, and the country’s North East (2021) 135pponline
• Marshall, Peter. "(Re)defining the English Reformation,"Journal of British Studies, July 2009, Vol. 48#3 pp. 564–586
• Thomas, Keith.Religion and the decline of magic: studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England (1991), a study of popular religious behaviour and beliefs
• Voas, David, and Alasdair Crockett. "Religion in Britain: Neither believing nor belonging."Sociology 39.1 (2005): 11–28.online^{[dead link]}

• Horace Mann (1854).Census of Great Britain, 1851: Religious Worship in England and Wales. Ge. Routledge.

• Religion in England
• Religion in the United Kingdom
• Religion in the British Empire

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