Christians 'less devout' than Muslims in Britain

Christians are less devout than followers of other religions in Britain, according to new research.
By Martin Beckford
 27 Jan 2011

Just one in three churchgoers “actively practises” their faith compared with more than two-thirds of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.

Christians are also less likely to say that their beliefs influence their everyday life, although they do affect the school to which they send their children.

The figures, published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday, provide more evidence that Britain remains a Christian country but most of its residents do not feel the need to attend church regularly and prefer to keep their beliefs private.

A new chapter of the ONS report Social Trends states that 82 per cent of adults in England and Wales said they followed a religion in 2009/09, with 72 per cent of these (equivalent to 32.4million people) calling themselves Christian. the rest

Damian Thompson: Practising Muslims will very soon overtake weekly churchgoers in Britain