Feiler Faster

Feiler Faster

Hindus To Outnumber Christians in Britain?

posted by bfeiler | 7:32am Saturday May 17, 2008

If current trends continue. These sorts of metrics are often silly — and this one seems so, too — but it does prove a point. Want a growing business: Converting churches into condos. European languages required.

Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published today suggests.
The fall – from the four million people who attend church at least once a month today – means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable. A lack of funds from the collection plate to support the Christian infrastructure, including church upkeep and ministers’ pay and pensions, will force church closures as ageing congregations die.
In contrast, the number of actively religious Muslims will have increased from about one million today to 1.96 million in 2035.
According to Religious Trends, a comprehensive statistical analysis of religious practice in Britain, published by Christian Research, even Hindus will come close to outnumbering churchgoers within a generation. The forecast to 2050 shows churchgoing in Britain declining to 899,000 while the active Hindu population, now at nearly 400,000, will have more than doubled to 855,000. By 2050 there will be 2,660,000 active Muslims in Britain – nearly three times the number of Sunday churchgoers.



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Comments read comments(3)
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jestrfyl

posted May 17, 2008 at 11:38 am


The headline is misleading, the equations are questionable, and the premiss is inflammatory and poor. After reading your books and seeing you in video interviews in person (a couple of times), I have expected better.



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Dilip Amin

posted May 18, 2008 at 10:09 am


A poor comparison. You are comparing church goers to claimed number of people from other faiths. Ideally comparison should be church goers Christian vs. Muslims who pray 6 times a day vs. Hindus who goes to Temple once a week (and are vegetarian).



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clasqm

posted May 19, 2008 at 6:10 am


Hindus and Muslims are increasing their numbers in Britain through continued immigration, and also because secularization has not yet hit them like the full ton of bricks it is. But it will. Restrict the research to third- and fourth- generation descendants of those immigrants and you’ll get a very different picture.
IMHO, anyway



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