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UK: Latest YouGov Survey Shows Only 28% Believe in a 'God'

The latest (18-19 December 2016) YouGov Survey shows that only 28% "believe there is a God", with 20% not believing in a God but believing in "some sort of spiritual greater power" and 33% not believing in a God or any "greater spiritual power" (and 14% "don't know" ) .

The survey results for church attendance ("Not including weddings, funerals or other events, how often, if at all, do you attend church?" ) reflected the decline in societal religiosity: 63% "never" attend church, 20% attend church once a year at most, and only 7% attend church more than once a month.

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/upts71m2pt/TimesResults_161219_VI_Trackers_EndofYear_W.pdf

(edited 7 years ago)

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Reply 1

user 42005

Hooray! Atheists are finally the largest group! I await the creation of a legally secular state with much eagerness! Are there any global statistics available in a similar format?

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 2

Drewski

I'm surprised it's that high.

Reply 3

CorpusLuteum

Lol did they literally ask 99 people

Not low enough.

Original post by JRKinder

Hooray! Atheists are finally the largest group! I await the creation of a legally secular state with much eagerness! Are there any global statistics available in a similar format?

The atheist-theist(-don't know) numbers are 58-28(-14), if you remove the don't knows (even though I imagine most of these will be closer to atheism than theism) this becomes 67-33.

Then imagine how that 33% (/28%) breaks down in terms of all the different Gods out there... Bad news for Christians indeed.

As for global statistics, their quality will vary hugely (i.e. don't expect to find any reliable polls on religiosity in Iran) so I only mentioned this poll because (i) it's very reputable, and (ii) I'm more interested in the UK.

I don't think the picture will be as good global-wise, but the trajectory of the UK is good enough for me.

What I find interesting is the general disparity between the census results and survey results, for example in the 2011 census 59% identified as Christian (down from 72% in 2001) and 25% identified as having no religion (up from 15% in 2001). The trend, however, is very clear and it will be very interesting to see the 2021 census figures for confirmation that Christians (note: this includes those that identify as Christians, not necessarily those who are actually Christian in faith/belief) are no longer a majority. There's even a chance that the irreligious could outnumber Christians (again note that this has clearly already occurred in terms of belief/faith, but not in terms of cultural identity), but I guess we'll have to wait and see...

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 6

username1221160

It's time to reignite the disestablishmentarianism debate.

Ideally with a shorter neologism.

Reply 7

JoshDawg

Unless the single numbers in that survey stand for hundreds of thousands i.e. 9 meaning 900,000 I wouldn't take this survey seriously due to its sample size. Using nearly 100 people to try gauge how an ENTIRE population thinks is laughable.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 8

username2950448

Original post by CorpusLuteum

Lol did they literally ask 99 people

Original post by JoshDawg

Unless the single numbers in that survey stand for hundreds of thousands i.e. 9 meaning 9,000,000 I wouldn't take this survey seriously due to its sample size. Using nearly 100 people to try gauge how an ENTIRE population thinks is laughable.

The numbers are percentages you absolute mouth breathers. :rofl:

The sample size was 1595, which you would know if you actually bothered to look at the survey results which I linked to.

Reply 9

JoshDawg

Original post by Palmyra

The numbers are percentages you absolute mouth breathers. :rofl:

The sample size was 1595, which you would know if you actually bothered to look at the survey results which I linked to.

Coincidentally I am breathing out of my mouse but ONLY because I have a blocked nose.

Also I don't click links I have 5 1/2 fingers. But that sample size is teeeeeeny tiiny.

Reply 10

username2950448

Original post by Mathemagicien

Note that YouGov surveys usually attract a certain demographic, and aren't really representative of the population as a whole.

Did you even look at the survey methodology/demographics?

Reply 11

Unistudent77

Original post by Mathemagicien

Note that YouGov surveys usually attract a certain demographic, and aren't really representative of the population as a whole. You should only really compare YouGov surveys with other YouGov surveys, so the news is that there has still been a significant increase in atheism, from 33 to 38 percent. The good news is that the percent of non-religious spirituals (the most annoying group) has not increased.

Why are they the most annoying group?

Religious people who force (not all of them do by any means) their beliefs upon you is surely far worse than folk who just believe there was probably something that created the singularity that created our big bang that eventually created us.

Reply 12

difeo

Original post by JoshDawg

Coincidentally I am breathing out of my mouse but ONLY because I have a blocked nose.

Also I don't click links I have 5 1/2 fingers. But that sample size is teeeeeeny tiiny.

1600 people is plenty.

Reply 13

JoshDawg

Original post by difeo

1600 people is plenty.

i will only accept that 1600 is an adequate number when that image is fixed and the image shows a meme so dank the normie mods will have to remove it.

Reply 14

l'etranger

Original post by Palmyra

The numbers are percentages you absolute mouth breathers. :rofl:

The sample size was 1595, which you would know if you actually bothered to look at the survey results which I linked to.

inb4 people without basic knowledge of the central limit theorem and the LLN criticize the sample size

Reply 15

username2950448

Original post by l'etranger

inb4 people without basic knowledge of the central limit theorem and the LLN criticize the sample size

your group seems to be at a solid 20%, not losing ground like the theists

first we came for the theists

then we're coming for you :sly:

Reply 16

l'etranger

Original post by Palmyra

your group seems to be at a solid 20%, not losing ground like the theists

first we came for the theists

then we're coming for you :sly:

In 50 years time the theists will be putting you guys into camps and not the fun kind you go to for the summer when you're a kid :laugh:

Basically the babyboomer moderate Christians will die off leaving a mix of liberal Atheists on one end of the scale and Orthodox Jews, Salafis and Christian fundamentalists on the other, and we all know who has more babies.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 17

1420787

The sampling methodology is always going to be based on a certain amount of assumption, but I can still imagine the figures are reasonably accurate.

I just don't know why the threat title has so many capital letters.

Reply 18

username2950448

Original post by l'etranger

In 50 years time the theists will be putting you guys into camps and not the fun kind you go to for the summer when you're a kid :laugh:

Christian fundamentalists is a U.S. thing not a U.K. thing, all our Christians are cute homophobic old women

Muslims are only 5% of the population, Jews even less, no way either of those become a majority in our lifetimes

Reply 19

l'etranger

Original post by Palmyra

The Islamic population has exploded, by the time we're in care homes or robotic exoskeletions Britain could easily be majority minority at 25% Muslim (not that it's a real issue). The Jewish population is basically a couple of steps ahead of the wider Western population, for years Jewish people had stagnant birthrates , but within the population there was a clear trend of religious Jews having huge families and liberal Jews who were the majority for a long time having birthrates well below replacement. A cursory look would have predicted the extinction of Jewish people with the high rates of out-marriage, not true anymore.