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Research

Belief, faith and religion: shifting attitudes in the UK

The Policy Institute

Research Summary

Since 1981, the World Values Survey has gathered data on global social, political, economic, religious and cultural values. This report outlines the latest findings on the UK, with comparisons to other countries.

Researchers

The Policy Institute

Research Institution

King’s College, London

What is this about?

The research is about contemporary UK religious values, including the likelihood of belief in God, heaven and hell or life after death; the degree of religious tolerance, and the popularity of atheism.

What was done?

A survey questionnaire was administered to 3,056 UK adults (18+). Once analysed, the resultant data were organised in a concise report, including comparisons to international trends.

Main findings and outputs

Readers are encouraged to download and read the report from the link given below. However, here are some examples of the main findings:

  • The share of Britons who say they believe in God and heaven has been in decline for decades, but belief in life after death and hell has remained stable – and by international standards the UK ranks relatively low on belief in all of these.
  • While younger people are less religious than older people, they are more inclined to believe in life after death.
  • The UK public are among the least likely internationally to identify as religious, with atheism also growing in popularity.
  • The share of the British public who say they are a religious person has halved since the early 1980s.
  • The UK public are among the most trusting of people of different religions, and among the most relaxed about other faiths.
  • Despite Britons’ declining religiosity, confidence in churches and religious organisations has increased in recent years.
  • Confidence in religious institutions in Britain has begun to rebound after being in decline.

Relevance to RE

The report provides excellent background material for policy and curriculum. Its report of increased confidence in religion and a high UK level of religious tolerance underlines the importance of an education in religion and worldviews and the alignment of such education with existing social values. The individual report data offer valuable resources for classroom teaching, when a social science approach to religion and worldviews is being used.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The generalisability of the data is high; reliable, broad and produced by expert researchers. The focus is on the UK, but the international comparisons mean that this is not done in an isolated way.

Find out more

The full report is freely downloadable from https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/lost-faith-the-uk’s-changing-attitudes-to-religion.pdf (published in May 2023, accessed on 6 July 2023).

 

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