For the first time, a majority of people in Scotland say they are not religious, according to new census data. Source: BBC News.
In the 2022 census, 51.1 per cent of respondents said they had “no religion,” up from 36.7 per cent in 2011.
The change was driven by a collapse in Christianity, particularly among Protestants.
While the Church of Scotland remains the largest religious group, its numbers have halved in a decade.
Just a fifth of people in Scotland (20.4 per cent) now say they identify with the Church of Scotland, which has lost a million followers since the dawn of the 21st century.
The number of Catholics has also fallen, down by more than 117,000 in the past decade to stand at 13.3 per cent of the population.
The number of Muslims increased by 43,100 to 119,872 over the same period, from 1.4 per cent to 2.2 per cent of the population.
Younger people were more likely than older people to say they had no religion but the figure was up across all age groups.
Among over-65s, “no religion” more than doubled between 2011 and 2022, an increase of 186,700 people.
Other UK countries have also seen an increase in “no religion” but the latest figure for England and Wales (37.2 per cent) is much lower than in Scotland.
The Reverend David Cameron, from the Church of Scotland, said the decline in membership numbers had been identified as an area of considerable concern by the Protestant church.
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Most Scots have no religion – census (By James Cook BBC News)
