Spotlight on United Kingdom
Christians are by far the largest religious group in the United Kingdom, representing more than 70%
of its population. The U.K.’s Christian population of 45 million is the fourth-largest in Europe and the
12th-largest in the world. The majority of Christians in the United Kingdom are Anglicans. (For more
information on Anglicans, see Defining Christian Traditions on page 38.)
Christianity arrived in the British Isles as early as the 1st century. In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory
the Great sent a missionary, Augustine, to convert the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain. Augustine
became the first archbishop of Canterbury and primate of an officially recognized Church of England, in
full communion with the pope. Catholic Christianity had become firmly established in England, Scotland
and Wales by the time King Henry VIII declared his supremacy over the English church in 1534. While
the eventual result of the English Reformation was that most of the English people came to adhere to
Anglicanism, a minority remained loyal Catholics or joined “non-conformist” groups that rejected the
official church as insufficiently reformed.1
Though the United Kingdom’s population remains predominantly Christian, surveys and censuses indicate
that a declining share of the population identifies as Christian. For example, the Annual Population
Survey conducted by Britain’s Office of National Statistics found that the proportion of people professing
Christianity fell from about 78% in 2004-2005 to about 72% in 2008.2
Footnotes:
1 “UK of Great Britain & Northern Ireland,” in David B. Barrett, editor, World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Study
of Churches and Religions in the Modern World, AD 1900-2000, Oxford University Press, 1982, pages 699-703. (return to text)
2 Each round of the Annual Population Survey had a sample size of more than 300,000 people. The survey does not
include data from Northern Ireland. (return to text)