Everyone in Britain has the right to religious freedom. Britain is predominantly Christian, and there are approximately 1.7 million members of the Anglican Church, which is legally recognized as the official church in England.

In Scotland, there are approximately 1.1 million members of the Presbyterian Church – the established church in Scotland. In Northern Ireland, about half the people regard themselves as Protestants and nearly 40% as Roman Catholics.

In Wales, the Anglican Church was disestablished in 1920. This means that there is no one officially established church, but Methodist and Baptist are the two most widespread denominations.

In 2001, the Census collected information about religious identity. The topic was new to the Census in England, Wales and Scotland, although the subject had been included in previous Censuses in Northern Ireland.

Just over three-quarters of the UK population reported having a religion. More than seven out of 10 people said that their religion was Christian (72%). After Christianity, Islam was the most common faith with nearly 3% describing their religion as Muslim (1.6 million).

The next largest religious groups were Hindus (559,000), followed by Sikhs (336,000), Jews (267,000), Buddhists (152,000), and people from Other religions (179 thousand). These groups each accounted for less than 1% and together accounted for a further 3% of the UK population.

People in Northern Ireland were most likely to say that they identified with a religion (86%) compared with those in England and Wales (77%) and Scotland (67%). About 16% of the UK population stated that they had no religion. This category included agnostics, atheists, heathens and those who wrote 'Jedi Knight'.

The Census religion question was a voluntary question. Nevertheless, more than 92% of people chose to answer it.

Further information on religion in Britain may be found on the National Statistics website.