Category Archives: Uncategorized

Religion and Attitudes Towards Faith Schools

The expansion of faith schools in recent years, as part of a broader parental choice and diversity of provision agenda in state-sector education, has been a prominent and divisive issue, both within religious traditions and between religious and secular lobbies. … Continue reading

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Is being Christian important for being British?

The most recent BRIN post presented across-time data on public opinion looking at (i) whether Britain is a Christian country and (ii) whether Britain should be a Christian country. Another perspective on public attitudes in this area is provided by … Continue reading

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Census 2011 – Any other religion?

In a world of tick-boxes, write-in responses are always fascinating.  The ‘Any other religion’ line on the census form is an invitation to self-expression that was accepted by hundreds of thousands of people in England and Wales in 2011. They … Continue reading

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Anglicans and Attitudes towards Gay Marriage

In a previous post I looked at the long-term attitudes of religious groups in Britain towards the acceptance of same sex relations, showing a clear liberalisation of public opinion in recent decades. The proportion of Anglicans who thought that sexual relations between adults of the same sex was either ‘always wrong’ or ‘almost always wrong’ had fallen from 69.7 per cent in 1983 to 37.4 per cent in 2010. While Anglicans may be more accepting of homosexuality in general, what about their attitudes towards more specific issues of gay rights – particularly those which more directly affect their own church and established social institutions? Continue reading

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Developing BRIN

Those visiting the site regularly will notice that this weekend, and over the next few days, the site is being rebuilt. We are migrating the content to the WordPress platform, which has been powering this ‘News’ section for almost two years. Continue reading

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Places of Worship in England and Wales, 1999-2009

We have spent a little time compiling data on registered places of worship in England and Wales from 1999-2009 and are making a note here on the data, and the caveats you need to bear in mind before interpreting them. The headline data suggest that ‘mainline’ established denominations are showing a reduction over time in numbers of places of worship, while other world religions, ‘other Christians’, and ‘other’ faith communities are exhibiting a gradual increase.
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Muslims in Britain

Muslims in Britain: An Introduction is a long-awaited new book by Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK, Cardiff University (Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-53688-2, £19.99 paperback – also available in hardback). … Continue reading

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Visualising Religious Switching, Sticking and Leaving

David Voas last week sent me a link to this fascinating chart, illustrating data collected by Pew on religious background, current affiliation and religious switching in the US. I have developed a similar chart for BRIN, currently ‘Chart of the Week’. Continue reading

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Historical Statistics of Welsh Religion

British Religion in Numbers covers historical as well as contemporary data, so from time to time our news section will feature sources which are mainly of historical interest. One such is Digest of Welsh Historical Statistics, 1700-1974: Religion, which has … Continue reading

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