A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain between 1801 and 2001.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain between 1801 and 2001.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
This is one of our more unusual themes, because only two censuses have ever gathered
information on religion in England and Wales, and they were 150 years apart!
The 1851 Census of Religion was a separate census carried out at the same time as the
main Census of Population.
It assumed that everyone was Christian, and tried to find out what kind of Christians
were most important in each district.
It did this by counting how many people attended each church on the census Sunday.
Our information has been considerably simplified from the original returns, which counted
35 different religious groups in England and Wales.
One result is a large 'other' category.
In 2001, a question about religion was included among the questions in the main census
for the first time ever.
Except in Scotland, where there is separate information on the Church of Scotland,
Catholics and 'Other Christian', the results lump all Christians together but also
gathered information on Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and Sikhs.
People were allowed to write in other religions not included on the census form, but
we have no data on the distribution of 'Jedi'.
Our detailed statistics are held in structures called nCubes, which you can think of as tables with one dimension, or with two ... or with twenty. Their dimensions are defined by the variables each nCube combines, and each variable is made up of categories. These nCubes are available at national level for this theme:
| Available nCubes | Period covered | Variables (number of categories) |
|---|---|---|
| Religious Faiths | 2001 |
Major religious faiths in 2001
(9) |