Religion and law round-up – 19th October

A rather miscellaneous week: religious affiliation, assisting suicide, new Article 9 cases, same-sex marriage in Scotland, the conclusion of the Synod in Rome  and  the importance of telling one brand of whiskey from another…

British Election Survey on religious affiliation

The admirable British Religion in Numbers site has posted the latest data released as part of the British Election Study. According to the BES  which started in the early 1960s  current declared religious affiliations in Great Britain (it doesn’t include Northern Ireland) in response to the question ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?’ are as follows:

  • No religious affiliation: 44.7%
  • Church of England/Anglican/Episcopal: 31.1%
  • Roman Catholic: 9.1%
  • Presbyterian/Church of Scotland: 3.1%
  • Methodist: 2.5%
  • Baptist: 1.3%
  • United Reformed Church: 0.5%
  • Free Presbyterian: 0.1%
  • Brethren: 0.1%
  • Judaism: 0.8%
  • Hinduism: 0.6%
  • Islam: 1.6%
  • Sikhism: 0.3%
  • Buddhism: 0.4%
  • Other: 3.7%

It’s an interesting set of figures but we cannot help wondering how reliable it is: Continue reading