Religion in the UK

For a long time, I have found religions fascinating. If I had infinite time on my hands, the first thing I would learn is about the intricacies and details of every religious belief on the planet. As a mortal, I instead find myself studying for the Life in the United Kingdom test, where I discovered a shocking piece of information about religion in the UK. Well, shocking to me anyway. My UK test book says that in a 2009 citizenship survey (not cited), 70% of people identify themselves as Christian (9% all other religions, and 21% no religion). I imagine my living in and around London the whole time has biased my view…or maybe it's the company I keep, but it certainly 'feels' like the ratio of Christians to 'Nones' is much less. I immediately took to Wikipedia to see what these numbers look like in the United States. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center poll, they look like this: 73% Christian, 7% all other religions, and 20% no religion. I am not sure what was more shocking, the huge silent Christian majority in the UK or how similar the two countries are. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked by the similarities because the US and UK are certainly more similar than different, but religion seems so much more in-your-face in the US so I was not prepared for the numbers to be so similar. OK, I promise not to do this for every country by I just looked at France: a 2011 Ipsos MORI survey (not cited) looks like this: 45% Christian, 10% all other religions, and 31% no religion (with 10% not reporting). Now that, that is a difference!  Hmm, now wait a minute.  I never looked at the Wikipedia UK numbers, which is reportedly based on a 2011 census: 59% Christian, 8% all other religions, 26% no religion (with 7% not reporting).  Now that seems a little more believable.

Photo Credit
Faravahar: Wikipedia