Monday, December 27, 2004
Britain Is Losing Its Religion, Survey Finds
People who believe God exists are now in a minority and almost everyone acknowledges Britain is becoming increasingly secular, according to a survey released today.
A Gallup poll in 1968 revealed 77% of Britons said they believed in God. According to the new YouGov survey, the figure has now fallen to 44%.
A majority of people in Britain neither hopes nor fears for a life after death with just about a third believing in heaven, and even fewer in hell and the devil.
Young people especially are significantly less religious than older generations, with more than a third describing themselves as either agnostics or atheists.
Among middle-aged people and the elderly, the figure is far smaller, according to the survey published today in The Daily Telegraph.
The proportion who do not believe in God has trebled from 11% in the late-1960s to 35% today.
One in four of YouGov’s sample, asked to say whether or not they believed in God, replied “don’t know“.
Among the 35% who said they did not believe in God, considerably more described themselves as agnostics rather than outright atheists.
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