Antisectarian

Faith and beliefs in present-day Scotland

Information on Scotland's religions was collected in the National Census of 2001 which asked people to classify themselves into the following categories: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Other religion, No religion, Not stated.

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The table below shows how this information breaks down for each country within the UK.

Religion %ScotlandEnglandNorthern
Ireland
WalesUK Total
Buddhist0.10.30.030.20.3
Christian65.171.785.871.971.6
Hindu0.11.10.040.21.0
Jewish0.10.50.020.10.5
Muslim0.83.10.10.72.7
Sikh0.10.70.010.10.6
Other religions0.50.30.060.20.3
Total all religions67.077.786.173.476.8
      
No religion27.514.6-18.515.5
Not stated557.7-8.17.3
All no religion/not stated33.022.313.926.623.2

This breakdown demonstrates clearly that the predominant religion in Scotland is Christianity. The second position is occupied by 'no religion' which includes paganism, humanism and other belief systems which are either not monotheistic or are atheistic. The levels of secularism in Scotland have been suggested as a significant reason for the decline in sectarianism in the past fifty years.

Updated on: 06 February 2008 The LTS Online Service is funded by the Scottish Government.