A total of 51.1% responded “no religion” in Scotland‘s Census 2022 – up from 36.7% in 2011, according to a new report released by the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

NRS said “no religion” was the most common response in every council area across the country, except the Western Isles and Inverclyde.

The “Church of Scotland” remains the largest religious group, but its numbers have continued to drop – from 42.4% in 2001 and 32.4% in 2011 to just 20.4% in the latest census.

The next largest religious groups were “Roman Catholic” (13.3%), “Other Christian” (5.1%) and “Muslim” (2.2%).

The number of people who described themselves as “Muslim” increased by 43,100 over the same period.

NRS said census data from England and Wales shows a “similar trend to Scotland”.

Census data from Northern Ireland shows an increase from 13.9% in 2001 (“no religion” and “no response” combined) to 17.4% in 2021 (“no religion” only).

The Irish Census for 2022 showed that 14pc of the population say that have “no religion”.