Here is a very boring looking and low effort table showing what percentage of different ethnic groups ticked the 'no religion' box at the last census in London. I thought it was fairly interesting, if largely unsurprising. I did think it was extraordinary just how few South Asians are irreligious given the broader culture, and I thought it was notable that mixed people are pretty much just as irreligious as the white British, showing their cultural alignment with the ethnic majority.

by TwyningA

27 comments

  2. It’s interesting as a Chinese person as we have to many Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist things (rituals? Beliefs?) in our daily culture but we largely don’t consider ourselves as having a religion according to this. I’d be interested to see what % of Chinese people call themselves atheists though, I suspect it would be a fair bit lower.

    Also, I find that Chinese people that have been here for a few generations, like my family, are more likely to identify as Christian. Not sure if that’s a colonial hangover, an assimilation thing or something else entirely.

    On another note, super interesting to see the differences between Caribbean and African people. Obviously they’re two separate and distinct groups, but I remember reading how Jamaica has the highest amount of churches per square capita and assumed that correlated with religiosity and would apply to other islands. Perhaps not.

  3. The less religious….the less crime committed it seems

  4. It’s not that South Asians are irreligious insofar as South Asians being scared of saying they’re irreligious.

  5. It’s all a pile of potatoes man. Maybe it means something?

    I wouldn’t cook your noodle over it for too long. Religion is either in vogue or it’s off season with endless cycles of minor updates to appease the Dogma of the time.

  6. I’m always skeptical of this question. I know many, many people who would put down Catholic but are absolutely not practicing or even believe in God. Feeling culturally tied to a religion is sometimes as strong as actually practicing the faith.

  7. Interesting how “Mixed White and Asian” is so high – slightly higher than White British – but London’s major Asian demographics are so low.

  8. i wonder how many people answered truthfully tbh :p im bengali and irreligious but because my dad was doing the census for my entire family he put me down as muslim lol

  9. Part of the high religiousness score amongst South Asians might be a difference in identity. I know people who don’t pray, believe in any god, or otherwise practice the religion, but nonetheless call themselves “Muslim” because it is also a cultural signifier.

  11. Just FYI, I’m British Indian and not religious at all but probably wouldn’t tick the no religion box. I’d still most likely tick the Hindu box to distinguish myself further from other groups from South Asia.

  12. You can’t conflate religion with culture! South Asians on the whole all follow one faith or another. Mainly Islam followed by Sikh and Hinduism. Not extraordinary at all.

  13. Buddhism isn’t a religion but many white Brits who don’t know much about it would consider it one. That may skew people perceptions. That’s just one wildly generalised example though.

  14. Chinese is not true and perhaps glaring oversight on the census considering this is well knows by Britain for at least 300 years. There tends to be no single religion / theism or checkbox.

  16. Why is

    >- Mixed White
    >- Asian, White
    >- Mixed white and black
    >- White other
    >- Other Asian

    listed under ethnicities?

    They are all races, not ethnicities at. A white Pakistani could very well tick white other as well and not be counted here. Very poor statistical compilement. It’s concerning that the author(s) can’t tell the difference between the two.

  17. The number for every group is almost certainly much higher. E.g. People put ‘Cristian’ or CofE just because of their upbringing.

  18. i think one of the reasons why indian is so low is probably because its so easy to be a hindu lol. most people (sort of like how it is for christianity) only class themselves as hindus because they go to divali and holi parties with their friends. they probably don’t pray or go to a temple often at all, but follow hindu festivals for the fun of it

  19. Id’ like to see the same information controlled for age as it certainly looks like part of what is happening is the different age groups are being represented by the different ethnicities to some extent. I know the average age of a mixed race is about half the average in the UK.

  20. I was amazed that the percentages were so low for White British / White Irish, I clearly live in a self-selecting sample.

  22. being a black agnostic (basically lazy atheist) is difficult and this just proves it. 

  25. I’m surprised more than half of white British say they do have a religion, I thought it was closer to 50/50 now.

  26. dont really trust this. I’m ethnically white Irish, born and raised in England. Every Irish, ethnic Irish person I know is ‘Catholic’ but if any of us started banging on about God everyone would think they are weird. It’s more a cultural hangover from being oppressed for the religion so it feels like signalling your Irish vs not a settler Irish protestant or something.

  27. Chinese is a nationality not an “ethnicity”. China is a multi-ethnic country. Same for India, Pakistan etc. “White British” is also not an ethnicity. If your mother is French, your father is Russian, as an example, and they met in the UK and you are born in the UK, you are White British. But if you do a DNA test it will tell you you’re 0% British. Arab is a linguistic group, not an ethnic one. Maghrebi people for example speak Arabic but aren’t Arab. But they are also not “Black African” or “White other” (maybe)?

    The “ethnicity” groups used in the UK census are disappointingly medieval…

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