You gotta have faith

By Economist.com

The latest British census shows the country's increasingly secular tilt

BRITAIN continues its descent into godlessness, according to the latest 2011 Census data. Just over a quarter of people in England and Wales (figures for Northern Ireland and Scotland are collected separately) say they have no religion, up from 14.8% a decade earlier. The proportion of Christians has fallen from 71.8% to 59.3%. All other main faiths have edged up, and Muslims now account for 4.8% of the population, compared with 3% in 2001. What of less common creeds? About a quarter of a million people ticked the “Other religion” write-in box. Among them, 56,620 wrote Pagan, while Agnostics and Atheists claimed around 30,000 adherents apiece. Rastafarianism, Zoroastrianism and Shamanism made the list, while the most common was Jedi Knight, by 176,632 Star Wars fans. Back in Britain, London breaks the trend a bit. Among the handful of places in the country where the actual number of Christians increased over the decade, four were London boroughs.

Read more on the Census here.