A new study has found that the
United Kingdom's nonreligious population is now bigger than its combined
Christian one, with 26 believers abandoning the faith for every atheist or
agnostic who decides to become a Christian.
The Benedict XVI Center for Religion
and Society, launched by St. Mary's University in Twickenham, release its May study based on data from the latest
British Social Attitudes survey and European Social Survey, with key findings
revealing the nation's growing secularization.
The researchers noted that 24.3
million people, or 48.6 percent of the British adult population, identified as
"nones" in 2015 and they are predominantly young, white and male.
The nones were found to have
different faith backgrounds — 38 percent of people who now say they have
no religion were brought up as nones, while 25 percent were brought up as
Anglicans, 25 percent as Other Christians, and 11 percent as Catholics, before
leaving the faith.
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"For every one person
brought up with No religion who has become a Christian, twenty-six people
brought up as Christians now identify as Nones," the study noted as a key
trend.
