North Wales Race Equality Network
Information - Faith

There are 37.3 million people in England and Wales who state their religion as Christian. The percentage of Christians is similar between the two countries but the proportion of people who follow other religions is 6.0 per cent in England compared with 1.5 per cent in Wales.

In England, 3.1 per cent of the population state their religion as Muslim (0.7 per cent in Wales), making this the most common religion after Christianity.

For other religions, 1.1 per cent in England and 0.2 per cent in Wales are Hindu, 0.7 per cent in England and 0.1 per cent in Wales are Sikh, 0.5 per cent in England and 0.1 per cent in Wales are Jewish and 0.3 per cent in England and 0.2 per cent in Wales are Buddhist.

In England and Wales 7.7 million people state they have no religion (14.6 per cent in England and 18.5 per cent in Wales).

The districts with the highest proportions of people with no religion are Norwich, Brighton and Hove and Cambridge, all with over one-quarter.

In Wales, the highest proportion of Christians is found on the Isle of Anglesey (79 per cent) and the fewest in Blaenau Gwent (64 per cent). Rhonnda, Cynon, Taff has the highest proportion with no religion (25 per cent). Cardiff has the highest proportion of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Jews. Ceredigion has the highest proportions of Buddhists and people of other religions.

At the time the Census was carried out, there was an internet campaign that encouraged people to answer the religion question "Jedi Knight". The number of people who stated Jedi was 390,000 (0.7 per cent of the population).

The religion question was voluntary, and 4,011,000 people chose not answer it (7.7 per cent).

Listed in the table below are the values, percentages and ranking for Local authority areas in North Wales who stated that they had no religion.

Ethnicity and Religion in North Wales
No religion
Wales / Cymru
Value
Percentage
Ranking
Gwynedd/Gwynedd
19311
16.5
15
Wrexham/Wrecsam
18630
14.5
18
Conwy/Conwy
15341
14.0
19
Isle of Anglesey/Ynys Môn
9057
13.6
20
Denbighshire/Sir Ddinbych
12451
13.4
21
Flintshire/Sir y Fflint
19195
12.9
22

The following pages provide some statistical charts illustrating the spread and diversity of religion within the population of North Wales

Source: National Statistics website: www.statistics.gov.uk
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO