Christianity Statistics: UK and US Belief, Church Attendance and the Bible
Updated: 3 days ago
Christianity statistics show a faith that is still the largest in both countries but is changing. In England and Wales, 46.2% of people described themselves as Christian in the 2021 Census, down from 59.3% in 2011. In the United States, Pew Research Center found that 62% of adults identify as Christian in 2023-24, down from 78% in 2007, although the fall has slowed.
If you have ever wondered how many Christians there are, how many go to church and how many open a Bible, the honest answer depends on who you ask and how they asked. A census counts people who tick a box. A survey asks about weekly habits. Both are useful, and neither can measure the heart.
This page gathers the most reliable recent figures for the UK and the US in one place, names every source, and says what each number can and cannot tell you. Every figure below comes from a page we opened and read on 21 October 2026. Where a figure is dated, or reported second-hand, we say so.
Last reviewed: 21 October 2026. Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV), Biblica, Inc.
Christianity statistics at a glance
England and Wales: 46.2% described themselves as Christian in the 2021 Census (27.5 million people), down from 59.3% in 2011 and 71.7% in 2001 (Office for National Statistics).
England and Wales: 37.2% reported no religion in 2021, up from 25.2% in 2011.
United States: 62% of adults identify as Christian in 2023-24, down from 71% in 2014 and 78% in 2007 (Pew Research Center).
United States: 33% of adults attend religious services in person at least monthly, and 25% attend weekly (Pew, 2023-24).
United States: Gallup found that 30% attend weekly or almost weekly in 2021 to 2023, down from 42% in 2000 to 2003 (Gallup).
The Bible: 44% of US adults say the Bible is extremely or very important in their lives (Pew, 2023-24).
Catholic Church in England and Wales: average weekly Mass attendance of 575,453 in 2024 (Catholic Bishops' Conference).
Church of England: early 2024 figures reported 1.02 million regular worshippers, up 1.2%, as reported by Premier Christian News.
What are the key Christianity statistics, source by source?
Measure | Figure | Place and year | Source |
Identify as Christian | 46.2% (27.5 million) | England and Wales, 2021 | |
Identify as Christian, earlier census | 59.3% (33.3 million) | England and Wales, 2011 | |
Report no religion | 37.2% (22.2 million) | England and Wales, 2021 | |
Identify as Christian | 62% of adults | United States, 2023-24 | |
Identify as Christian, earlier surveys | 78% in 2007, 71% in 2014 | United States | |
Religiously unaffiliated | 29% of adults | United States, 2023-24 | |
Attend services in person at least monthly | 33% of adults | United States, 2023-24 | |
Attend weekly or almost weekly | 30% of adults | United States, 2021 to 2023 | |
Pray at least once a day | 44% of adults | United States, 2023-24 | |
Bible extremely or very important | 44% of adults | United States, 2023-24 | |
Average weekly Mass attendance | 575,453 | Catholic Church, England and Wales, 2024 | |
Adults who tithed (gave a tenth) | 5% | United States, 2007 |
How we checked these Christianity statistics
We opened each source page on 21 October 2026 and copied the figure, the year and the group of people it covers. If a page did not state a figure, we left it out. We did not round, convert or combine figures from different years, and we kept each survey's own wording.
The sources fall into three kinds: an official count (the 2021 Census), large national surveys (Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study and Gallup's polling) and statistics published by churches themselves. A news report is labelled as one wherever we could not reach the original.
Some things we could not confirm, so we have left them out of the figures above:
The latest British Social Attitudes religion tables. We only reached a news report of the 2016 results, which we use below as a dated marker.
The Church of England's own statistics page, which did not load for us. Its early 2024 figures come from a news report.
Newer American Bible Society State of the Bible findings. The page we could open dates from 2012.
Religion figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland, which the England and Wales census does not cover.
How many Christians are there in the UK?
The most complete answer comes from the 2021 Census of England and Wales, run by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In total, 27.5 million people, or 46.2% of the population, described themselves as Christian. It was the first time a census of England and Wales found fewer than half of people choosing that answer, and Christian remained the most common response.
The change is clearer set beside earlier censuses. In 2001 the Christian figure was 71.7% (37.3 million people). In 2011 it was 59.3% (33.3 million). Over the same twenty years, the share reporting no religion rose from 14.8% to 25.2% and then to 37.2% (22.2 million people).
Census year | Christian | No religion |
2001 | 71.7% (37.3 million) | 14.8% (7.7 million) |
2011 | 59.3% (33.3 million) | 25.2% (14.1 million) |
2021 | 46.2% (27.5 million) | 37.2% (22.2 million) |
Other religions grew over the decade. The ONS reports 6.5% of people as Muslim (3.9 million) in 2021, up from 4.9% in 2011, and 1.7% as Hindu (1.0 million), up from 1.5%.
Does the figure vary across England and Wales?
Yes, and by a lot. England was 46.3% Christian and Wales 43.6%, a fall of 14.0 points from 57.6% in 2011. London was 40.7% Christian and is the most religiously diverse region of England.
Among local authorities, the highest Christian share in England was Knowsley at 66.6%. Brighton and Hove had 30.9%, down from 42.9% in 2011. Averages hide very different local pictures.
What does the census actually measure?
The ONS says religion in the census means the religion a person connects or identifies with, whether or not they practise or believe in it. The question was voluntary, and 94.0% of people answered it. The ONS also notes that changes may reflect ageing, fertility, mortality and migration, and differences in how people chose to answer.
So the fall from 59.3% to 46.2% is a fall in people ticking the Christian box. It is not a measured fall in prayer, belief or church life. That distinction matters whenever these figures are quoted.
How many people go to church in Britain?
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales publishes its own statistics for 2024. They give an average weekly Mass attendance of 575,453, a revised figure taken from parish counts over four weekends in late September and early October. The same page records 38,978 baptisms, 47,110 first communions, 26,894 confirmations and 5,774 marriages.
For the Church of England, early figures for 2024 were reported by Premier Christian News in May 2025. It said regular worshippers rose 1.2% to 1.02 million, Sunday attendance rose 1.5% to 582,000 and weekly in-person attendance across the week was just over 701,000. That was described as the fourth year of growth in a row, although figures had not returned to pre-Covid levels.
We could not open the Church of England's own page, so treat these as preliminary and check its full Statistics for Mission report when you quote them.
What did British Social Attitudes find?
The NatCen British Social Attitudes survey asks a random sample of people which religion, if any, they belong to. Its 2016 results, reported by the Evening Standard in September 2017, found 53% with no religion, up from 31% in 1983.
Of those surveyed in 2016, 15% belonged to the Church of England, 9% to the Catholic Church, 17% to other Christian denominations and 6% to other religions. Among 18 to 24 year olds, 71% said they had no religion. The three Christian groupings add up to 41%, a little below the 2021 Census figure, a reminder that surveys and censuses ask in different ways at different times.
These are 2016 figures. Use them as a historical marker, not as today's number.
How many Christians are there in the US?
The United States census does not ask about religion, so the standard source is the Religious Landscape Study from Pew Research Center. Its 2023-24 edition surveyed 36,908 adults between July 2023 and March 2024, with a margin of error of plus or minus 0.8 percentage points and a response rate of 20%.
It found that 62% of US adults identify as Christian. That is 9 points lower than the 71% found in 2014 and 16 points lower than the 78% found in 2007. Pew also reports that between 2019 and 2024 the Christian share hovered between 60% and 64%, so the long decline looks to have slowed.
Group (US adults) | Share, 2023-24 | Notes |
Christian (all) | 62% | 78% in 2007, 71% in 2014 |
Protestant | 40% | Pew's largest Christian grouping |
Catholic | 19% | Stable since 2014 in Pew's annual surveys |
Other Christian groups | About 3% | Includes Orthodox, Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses |
Religiously unaffiliated | 29% | 23% in 2014, 16% in 2007 |
Jewish | 1.7% | Pew 2023-24 |
Muslim | 1.2% | Pew 2023-24 |
Is the American church still shrinking?
Pew's answer is: more slowly. Its report is titled "Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off". The same report is cautious about the future, because younger adults are much less religious than older ones.
Adults aged 18 to 24 are less likely than adults aged 74 and over to identify as Christian (46% against 80%), to pray daily (27% against 58%) and to attend services at least monthly (25% against 49%). They are also more likely to be unaffiliated (43% against 13%).
Pew adds that the youngest cohort is no less religious than the one born in the 1990s on several measures. Time will tell whether that is the start of a lasting shift.
How many people attend church regularly?
Two large US sources give a similar picture with different wording. Pew found that 33% of adults attend religious services in person at least monthly, including 25% who attend weekly, while 49% seldom or never attend in person. A further 16% watch services online or on TV at least weekly. Counting in-person and online together, 40% take part at least monthly.
Gallup pooled telephone surveys from 2021, 2022 and 2023 (32,445 adults, margin of error plus or minus 1 point). Three in ten adults attend every week (21%) or almost every week (9%), 11% attend about monthly and 56% seldom or never do.
Period (Gallup, US adults) | Attend weekly or almost weekly |
2000 to 2003 | 42% |
2011 to 2013 | 38% |
2021 to 2023 | 30% |
Gallup also found that 44% of Protestants and other nondenominational Christians and 33% of Catholics attend regularly. The Catholic figure was 45% in 2000 to 2003. Gallup links much of the overall fall to the rise of Americans with no religious affiliation, from 9% to 21% over the same period.
Why can the numbers seem to disagree?
Pew warns that its 2023-24 survey was completed mainly online and on paper, while its 2007 and 2014 studies were by telephone. Telephone surveys tend to produce higher attendance figures. So the apparent drop from 50% attending monthly in 2014 to 33% in 2023-24 may be partly an effect of the method, and Pew does not compare them directly.
Within its own phone surveys, Pew did find a real fall: 54% attended at least monthly in 2007, 50% in 2014 and 45% by 2018-19. The lesson is to compare numbers from one survey over time, and to be careful mixing different surveys.
How many people read the Bible, and how important is it?
The newest figure we could verify comes from Pew's 2023-24 study. Overall, 44% of US adults say the Bible is extremely or very important in their lives, 19% say it is somewhat important and 37% say it is not too or not at all important. Among adults with no religious affiliation, 10% say it is extremely or very important.
The same study found that about four in ten Americans say religion is very important to them, compared with 56% in 2007 and 53% in 2014. Pew notes that part of that change could be down to the move from phone to online surveys.
For reading habits, the dated benchmark is the American Bible Society's State of the Bible survey, published in 2012 and conducted by Barna Group. It found that 33% of American adults read the Bible once a week or more, while 36% read it less than once a year or never. It also reported that 85% of US households own a Bible. These are 2012 figures. We could not open a newer release, so we do not present them as current.
If you are reading the Bible for the first time, our guide on how to start reading the Bible and the overview of all 66 books of the Bible are gentle places to begin. Scripture itself puts it simply: "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path" (Psalm 119:105 NIV).
How much do Christians give? A note on tithing
Giving is harder to measure than belief. The best verified figure we found is a Barna Group study published in April 2008, which surveyed 1,006 US adults by telephone in January 2008 (margin of error plus or minus 3.2 points). It reported that 5% of adults tithed in 2007, meaning they gave a tenth of their income. Among evangelicals the figure was 24%, and Protestants were four times as likely to tithe as Catholics (8% against 2%).
The same study found that 84% of adults gave some money to churches or non-profits in 2007, and 64% gave to a place of worship. These figures are almost two decades old and cover the US only. For what the Bible teaches, see our guide to tithing in the Bible and the wider question of what the Bible says about giving.
What do Christianity statistics not tell us?
Faith is not only a number. A census box or a survey answer records identity or habit. It cannot measure trust in God, prayer in private or love shown to a neighbour.
Averages hide local stories. Knowsley and Brighton and Hove sit about 36 points apart on the 2021 census Christian share, and individual churches grow and shrink independently of national trends.
Wording changes results. "Belong to", "identify as" and "attend" are different questions. A person can be counted in one and not another.
Methods change. Pew's move from phone to online and paper means some old and new figures should not be compared directly.
Gaps remain. We have not covered Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Orthodox and Pentecostal churches in detail, or worldwide figures.
The Bible does not call believers to count heads. It does call them to keep meeting: "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another" (Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV). Jesus promised, "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20 NIV).
If you want to understand the faith behind the figures, start with what Christianity is, or see how it compares in Christianity and atheism.
And if you want to know about the person at the centre of the faith, read who Jesus was in our complete guide to his life and teachings.
Frequently asked questions about Christianity statistics
What percentage of people in the UK are Christian?
In the 2021 Census of England and Wales, 46.2% of people described themselves as Christian (27.5 million). This was down from 59.3% in 2011. The census covers England and Wales only, and the question asks about identity, not practice.
What percentage of Americans are Christian?
Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study found that 62% of US adults identify as Christian, down from 78% in 2007. Pew says the decline has slowed since about 2019.
How many people go to church every week?
In the US, Gallup found that about 30% of adults attend weekly or almost weekly (2021 to 2023), and Pew found 25% attend weekly in 2023-24. In England and Wales, the Catholic Church reported an average weekly Mass attendance of 575,453 in 2024.
Is Christianity growing or declining?
It depends on the place and the measure. Census affiliation fell in England and Wales between 2001 and 2021, and US affiliation fell between 2007 and 2023-24, though more slowly recently. Early Church of England figures for 2024 showed attendance rising for a fourth year, so some measures are recovering.
How many Americans read the Bible?
Pew found that 44% of US adults say the Bible is extremely or very important in their lives (2023-24). The American Bible Society's 2012 survey found 33% read it weekly or more. The second figure is old, so treat it as a benchmark only.
How reliable are religion statistics?
Large, random surveys and censuses are reliable for broad trends, and each reports its margin of error and method. They are less reliable for comparing different surveys or years, which is why this page keeps every figure with its source and date.
Key takeaways
Fewer than half of people in England and Wales (46.2%) identified as Christian in the 2021 Census, but Christian was still the most common answer.
In the US, 62% of adults identify as Christian (Pew, 2023-24), and the long fall appears to have slowed.
About three in ten US adults attend services weekly or almost weekly (Gallup, 2021 to 2023).
44% of US adults say the Bible is extremely or very important in their lives (Pew, 2023-24).
Young adults are less religious than older adults on most measures, so the future is uncertain.
Always check the source, the year and the exact question before quoting a religion statistic.
Free printable to go with this guide
If you would like to put some of this into practice, our Free Downloads page has printable Bible reading plans, prayer journals and study sheets for you to use at home or in a small group. They are free, with no sign-up.
Conclusion
Christianity statistics for the UK and US tell a story of change: fewer people ticking the Christian box than a generation ago, a slower decline in the US lately and a church that still gathers millions every week. Numbers help us see where we are, and they never replace the work of loving God and our neighbours. May this page help you quote them accurately and read them kindly.
Explore more Christian guides on Jesus Light Studio, and come back to this page, which we will update when new figures are published.
References and further reading
Office for National Statistics: Religion, England and Wales, Census 2021 (released 29 November 2022)
Pew Research Center: Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off (26 February 2025)
Gallup: Church Attendance Has Declined in Most U.S. Religious Groups (25 March 2024)
Also used: Barna Group, New Study Shows Trends in Tithing and Donating (2008); Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Statistics 2024; Premier Christian News on Church of England attendance (May 2025); Evening Standard on British Social Attitudes (2017); American Bible Society, The State of the Bible (2012).
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