Census, Corruption, Confidence, Curriculum, and Charity

Today we feature five Cs of religious statistics – census, corruption, confidence, curriculum, and charity – in our latest round-up of newly-released quantitative data.

Census – local characteristics on religion

More data from the 2011 census of population were released by the Office for National Statistics on 31 July 2013 in the form of local characteristics on ethnicity, identity, language, and religion for output areas in England and Wales. The release provides the first cross-tabulations of two or more topics for output areas. More information and links to the data can be found at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/local-characteristics-on-ethnicity–identity–language-and-religion-for-output-areas-in-england-and-wales/index.html

The religion-specific tables are:

  • LC2107EW     Religion by sex by age
  • LC2201EW     Ethnic group by religion
  • LC2204EW     National identity by religion
  • LC2207EW     Country of birth by religion by sex
  • LC6205EW     Economic activity by religion by sex by age
  • LC6207EW     NS-SeC by religion

although there is only space to highlight a couple here.

The breakdown of religion by ethnicity is shown below. Contrary to what many people might think, Muslims are not the most ethnically homogenous faith community – they are ‘only’ 68% Asian and include significant numbers of whites (8%) and blacks (10%). Most ethnically homogenous are Hindus (96% Asian) and Christians, Jews, and persons of no religion – all around 93% white.  

% across

White

Mixed

Asian

Black

Other

All religious groups

86.0

2.2

7.5

3.3

1.0

Christian

92.7

1.7

1.4

3.9

0.3

Buddhist

33.8

4.0

59.7

1.1

1.5

Hindu

1.5

1.2

95.7

0.7

0.9

Jewish

92.4

1.6

1.1

0.6

4.3

Muslim

7.8

3.8

67.6

10.1

10.7

Sikh

1.8

1.2

87.1

0.3

9.6

Other religion

76.0

3.1

16.5

3.0

1.5

No religion

93.4

2.8

2.5

1.0

0.4

Not stated

86.4

3.1

5.8

3.7

1.1

NS-SeC (National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification) is collapsed into eight main categories (excluding those not classified), of which three, at the extremes of the spectrum, appear below: (1) = higher managerial, administrative, professional; (7) = routine; and (8) = never worked or long-term unemployed. Most ‘affluent’ on this indicator are the Jews, who are almost twice as likely to be in higher managerial, administrative or professional occupations as the norm, and only one-quarter as likely to be in routine jobs. Most disadvantaged are Muslims, 24% of whom have never worked or are long-term unemployed, four times the national average, although cultural factors will account for some of the differential.

% across

(1)

(7)

(8)

All religious groups

9.9

11.6

5.9

Christian

9.2

12.6

4.5

Buddhist

11.1

8.5

8.5

Hindu

17.1

7.4

9.1

Jewish

19.2

2.9

5.2

Muslim

6.3

8.7

23.8

Sikh

9.6

12.5

9.8

Other religion

10.6

8.4

6.2

No religion

11.6

10.2

5.7

Not stated

10.0

11.4

7.0

Corruption – Global Corruption Barometer

One-third of the population considers that religious bodies in this country are corrupt or extremely corrupt, according to the results of the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB), 2013, which were published on 9 July 2013 by the Berlin-based organization Transparency International: The Global Coalition against Corruption. The publics of 107 nations were surveyed on a variety of corruption-related topics between September 2012 and March 2013, with 1,000 adults being interviewed online in the UK by ORB International. A report on the study and various other outputs can be found at:

http://www.transparency.org/research/gcb

Asked to assess the extent to which twelve national organizations were affected by corruption, 34% of the UK sample said that religious bodies are corrupt or extremely corrupt (against 29% globally). Although this was a smaller proportion than made the same claim against the media (69%), political parties (66%), Parliament (55%), business (49%), and civil servants (45%), it was higher than for the police (32%), the judiciary (24%), medical and health services (19%), education (18%), NGOs (18%), and the military (17%). The UK figure for religious bodies was also almost double the 18% recorded in the 2005 GCB.

The mean corruption scores (on a scale of 1 to 5) for the UK and all 107 countries investigated in the 2013 GCB are set out in the following table, with comparisons for 2005, (when 69 countries were surveyed):

 

2013

2013

2005

2005

 

UK

Global

UK

Global

Political parties

3.9

3.8

3.5

4.0

Media

3.9

3.1

3.2

3.2

Parliament

3.6

3.6

3.2

3.7

Business

3.5

3.3

3.0

3.4

Civil servants

3.3

3.6

NA

NA

Religious bodies

3.0

2.6

2.4

2.6

Police

3.0

3.7

2.8

3.6

Judiciary

2.7

3.6

2.9

3.5

NGOs

2.6

2.7

2.5

2.8

Education system

2.6

3.1

2.1

3.0

Medical/health services

2.6

3.2

2.2

3.2

Military

2.5

2.8

2.5

2.9

The corruption score for religious bodies in the UK has increased over time from 2.4 in 2005 to 2.8 in 2006 and 2007 to 3.0 in 2010 and 2013, despite the global score remaining flat. This seems to exemplify growing perceptions of corruption affecting most UK national institutions (with the exception of the judiciary and the military), rather than specific evidence of corruption by UK religious bodies. While one can identify many reasons why the overall public standing of religious bodies may have declined of recent years, notably for the Anglican and Catholic Churches and Islam, it is not so easy to explain why they should be thought of as becoming more corrupt.

Confidence – trust in the Church

The Church is the fourteenth most trusted of twenty-four national institutions, according to a survey conducted by nfpSynergy in May 2013 among an online sample of 1,000 Britons aged 16 and over, and published on 16 July 2013. Just 30% of respondents said that they had a great deal or quite a lot of trust in the Church, a lower proportion than in the ten previous surveys carried out during the past decade through the nfpSynergy Charity Awareness Monitor. Trust in the Church stood at 42% in November 2003 and has tended to fall since, but somewhat erratically (with a rise from 32% in January and July 2011 to 38% in May 2012). By contrast, a majority of the population (61%, eight points more than in May 2012) now claims they have very little or not much trust in the Church, albeit this is still not quite as bad a rating as for banks (77%), newspapers (79%), Government (80%), and political parties (88%). The institutions which command the greatest confidence are the armed forces (78% stating that they trust them a great deal or quite a lot), the scouts and guides (67%), the National Health Service (67%), charities (66%), and schools (65%). The press release and slides relating to the May 2013 study are at:

http://nfpsynergy.net/trust-charities-third-year-running

Curriculum – benefits of religious education

Religious education (RE) is the secondary school subject regarded as having least educational benefit according to a poll published on 9 August 2013 and conducted among 1,844 UK adults aged 18 and over who had attended secondary school in the UK. They were interviewed online by Opinium Research between 12 and 16 July 2013. Shown a list of 17 school subjects, 21% identified RE as being least beneficial to their education, rising to 24% among men, 26% for those aged 35-54, and 27% for residents of Yorkshire and Humberside and Wales. The next most non-beneficial subject was art (cited by 16%), followed by physical education (10%). At the other end of the spectrum, biology, ICT, and sex education scored just 1% each, suggesting they were deemed most useful beyond school. Full results are on pp. 12-15 of the data tables at:

http://news.opinium.co.uk/sites/news.opinium.co.uk/files/OP3507%20-%20Opinium%20PR%20-%20Education%20-%20SET%20FOUR%20-%20Tables.pdf

Charity – charitable giving by Muslims

British Muslims are increasingly donating to charity online, with the month of Ramadan causing a spike in digital giving. This is according to a press release from JustGiving, which describes itself as the world’s leading online giving platform, on 20 July 2013. The claim about Muslim charitable donations is based on two sources. First, the value of donations by British Muslims to Muslim and non-Muslim causes via JustGiving increased from £116,000 in 2010 to £200,000 in 2012. Second, JustGiving commissioned ICM Research to undertake an online survey of 4,000 adults between 22 and 27 June 2013, which suggested that Muslims gave more than twice as much per capita to charity last year as the average Briton (£371 versus £165). Jews were the next most generous faith group (£270), while Protestants gave £202 and atheists only £116. The full results of the ICM study are apparently not being published at this stage, the foregoing being based on a report in The Times for 20 July 2013 and on JustGiving’s press release at:

http://www.justgiving.com/en/SharedMedia/press-releases/Ramadan%20donations%20cause%20spike%20in%20digital%20giving.pdf

 


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