Church attendance in the UK has risen among those who describe themselves as Christian, a major new survey says [1]. It indicates that even as Britain secularises, there is a return to religious practice among those who identify as Christian, which is somewhat less than half of the British population. Overall, the number of self-identified Christians who attend church at least once a month has risen from 8pc to 12pc over the past six years.
The findings come in The Quiet Revival [2], a survey commissioned by Bible Society and conducted by YouGov.
It shows that the most dramatic church growth is among young Christians, particularly young men. In 2018, just 4 per cent of 18–24-year-olds said that they attended church at least monthly. Today this has risen to 16 per cent, with young men increasing from 4 per cent to 21 per cent, and young women from 3 to 12 per cent.
Co-author, Dr Rhiannon McAleer says these are “striking findings that completely reverse the widely held assumption that the Church in England and Wales is in terminal decline”.
‘While some traditional denominations continue to face challenges, we’ve seen significant, broad-based growth among most expressions of Church – particularly in Roman Catholicism and Pentecostalism. There are now over 2 million more people attending church than there were six years ago.’