Religion-switching in the UK and USA

August 15, 2010 | Filed under: Featured Block,Science & Research | Posted by: Tom Rees

The folks at BRIN have been busy putting together this fab chart showing generational changes in religion in Britain. The data are from the 2008 British Social Survey and show the religion in which people were brought up on the left, and their current religion on the right. Connecting the two are ‘pipes’ showing how people have switched – the fatter the pipe, the more people have followed that path.

UK religion-switching. Click for a larger version.

What jumps out immediately is that, ‘No religion’ is now the biggest category, as a result of large numbers of people switching out from Christianity. What this chart also makes obvious is that very few British people switch religions. What switching there is seems to mostly be out of religion altogether.

What’s more, non-Christians almost all have stayed religious – very few have switched out to non-religion. I guess that’s because these people are mostly first or second-generation immigrants, for whom religion forms an important part of their cultural identity.

Now compare the UK chart with one done for the US by Internet Monk. Note: Michael Bell at Internet Monk uses Pew Forum survey data. – Ed.

US religion-switching. Click for larger version.

Some things are similar. Most notably, a lot of people have converted to ‘no religion’. Unlike the UK, however, some people move from ‘No religion’ into a religious group. That hardly ever happens in the UK, and perhaps reflects the social pressures on US individuals to be at least nominally religious.

In the US, there seems to be more switching in general, however. Unlike the UK, there’s noticeable switching from Catholic to Protestant (and vice versa), and even back and forth from ‘other’ religions.

I wonder why this should be?

This article by Tom Rees was first published on Epiphenom. It is licensed under Creative Commons. The title has been edited.

11 Responses to Religion-switching in the UK and USA

Steve August 15, 2010 - 6:34 pm

RE: the question about religion switching in the US. I know a lot of people who "shop" for religions. They look for a denomination which matches *their* views. And, if their denomination switches positions (ie. the marriage of gays), many people switch to another religion. It's very common in my opinion

Stonyground August 16, 2010 - 5:33 am

The UK 2001 census, the first one to contain a question about religion, revealed that the Brits are around 80% Christians. It does not require much scratching below the surface to reveal this figure to be highly misleading. In one case the reason given for giving Christian as an answer was 'well I'm not a Buddhist am I?' I personally asked a "Christian" if I do something wrong, how does some guy being brutally tortured to death 2,000 years ago make it OK? His reply was "Of course it doesn't, that's absurd". The 80% Christian figure appears to contain a large number of non-christians, it is very wise to take any lind of surveys of belief with a pinch of salt.

Leah C. August 16, 2010 - 9:15 am

I agree. When you know how you feel about any particular issue, many would choose a group or perhaps start a group that also feels the same way. More proof that man invents religion and God is not to be found through the claims of man.

rsharvey August 16, 2010 - 9:32 am

You suggest that not many people in the UK switch from non belief to a religion. From where I'm standing though, it looks as though more than half the non believers switch to the Church of England. This would be roughly the same proportion as in the US. Am I missing something?

ridelo August 16, 2010 - 10:01 am

Is this the result of a poll or is it based on actual memberships. Because I'm still registered as a catholic, but I would answer 'no religion' in a poll.

Mike_Daniels August 16, 2010 - 10:07 am

I agree. The design of the UK diagram fails to recognize that English-readers read from left to right. The labels would be better on the left, so it would be immediately apparent that purple signifies CoE, pink Roman Catholic, etc.

Brian Magee August 17, 2010 - 4:46 am

To understand the U.S. number we'd have to get some more information–on geography, for example; what parts of the country are the most likely to trend one way or another. We would also need to know how specifc age ranges moved. To just say "adults" is too large of a group to decipher properly. Younger adults are surely less like the elderly ones. Political affiliations would also help, as would if those had changed over time along with the religious identity. These are interesting numbers, but without some more detail and study it doesn't tell us too much, unfortunately.

Elaine Sutherland August 17, 2010 - 5:04 am

Yes, geography would be a significant factor in identifying religious movement or numbers in the US. The Northeast and California would surely reveal a vastly different statistic than the south and the midwest. You'd probably also find a big difference between rural and urban locations as well. But it's not mere lightheartedness that named the heart of America "Jesusland". I would love to see an elaborate graph, measuring in transparent overlays the following: Religion Political party State or region view on gay marriage view on death penalty view on abortion average educational levels I am sure we would see very predictable parallels.

Shannn August 22, 2010 - 7:16 am

I wish the UK graph was done more like the US graph (or just give us the raw numbers to compare side-by-side)… comparing sizes of circles isn't easy for our brains.

??? August 22, 2010 - 7:13 pm

Anyone else notice that there is no distribution for Black Protestants (i.e., changing religion after childhood)? Is that accurate?

Jules August 23, 2010 - 3:20 am

There is pressure in the UK on parents to create the appearance of consistent religious practice. Many of the state-run schools in the UK have a religious affiliation and are allowed to give preference to those with a demonstrated commitment to the practice of their religion should the number of students seeking enrolment exceed the available number of places. In many areas, the state schools that attract upper middle class families (and that are known as being good schools) happen to be those with a religious affiliation. This creates pressure on aspiring families to find religion sometime between the birth of their child and the time when that child starts school. Given that state-run faith schools are more likely to be affiliated with the Church of England than any other particular religion, I think that adopting a religion to get a child into the best local school would explain why those with a non-religious background are more likely to change to the Church of England than any other religion.