Average age of Christians rises to 51: Census shows more under-65s now declare ‘no religion’ for first time – while Muslims are just 27 on average
- Latest release from 2021 census shows changing face of religion among ages
- Christians getting older and now outnumbered by ‘no religion’ among under-65s
The country’s shifting beliefs were laid bare today with census figures showing the average age of Christians has hit 51.
The age has risen from 45 at the time of the last huge survey in England and Wales in 2011. For the first time the research in 2021 found that more of those aged under 65 said they had ‘no religion’ than were Christian.
Although the age profile for other religions was also up, Christians were by far the oldest. Muslims are on average just 27.
The striking picture emerged as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released a breakdown of responses to the religion question by age and sex.
The shifting beliefs in England and Wales were laid bare today with census figures showing the average age of Christians has hit 51
The youngest average age was 27 years, for people identifying as Muslim, up from 25 in 2011.
Hindus were up from 32 years to 37 years, Sikhs from 32 to 37, Buddhists from 37 to 43. The average for people said they were Jewish was unchanged at 41.
Nearly three in 10 – 29 per cent – of those who identified as Christian at this census were aged 65 and over. That was up from just 22.3 per cent a decade before.
By contrast, the proportion of 21-25 year-olds identifying as Christian has fallen from 5.1 per cent to 3.9 per cent.
Only 8.8 per cent of those who said they had no religion were aged 65 and over, compared with 18.6 per cent of the overall population who belong in this age group.
More than half of people in each year from age 22 to age 30 said they had no religion.
Some 20.25million of under-65s said they had no religion, compared to 19.53million in the age band who were Christian.
That contrasted with 2011, when 25.85million under-65s declared they were Christian, and just 13.31million had no religion.
Humanists UK chief executive Andrew Copson said: ‘Today’s results only serve to underline the archaic place that collective worship and faith-based discrimination have in our schools. That urgently needs to be looked at.
‘But more generally, they make plain that the UK faces a non-religious future. This is in stark contrast to how our state institutions operate today. No other European country has such a religious set-up as we do in terms of law and public policy, while at the same time having such a non-religious population.
‘Politicians should look at today’s results and recognise they must renegotiate the place of religion or belief in today’s society.’
The youngest average age was 27 years, for people identifying as Muslim, up from 25 in 2011
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