Tumbling numbers of people identifying as Christian should be no surprise, says Dr Michala Hulme.
The latest Census 2021 results are not surprising, after all, it is just a broad reflection of what is happening in society. It’s pretty clear that in the last decade the country has got more diverse and that is reflected in the results.
Tumbling numbers of people identifying as Christian – now less than half the population in England and Wales – combined with the number of those with no religion rising by 12 percent should be no surprise. We can go back to the nineteenth century to see the role of the church diminishing in people’s everyday lives.
Every census asks new questions and therefore no census will produce exactly the same result, but what is interesting about this census is that it was taken during the pandemic, so a large proportion of the population would have been at home on census night.
Although there have been some changes, Polish is still the most popular non-UK identity, as it was in 2011. This was closely followed by Romanian. However, 90.3% of the population identified as being from one of the countries in the UK.
Dr Michala Hulme is a lecturer in Public History at the University of Birmingham. Michala is an award-winning historian of nineteenth-century British history, with a particular focus on the experience of living and dying in the urban environment. She is also a public historian who works with charities, community groups, the media, heritage organisations and museums, helping to engage the wider public in history.
Her last research project Finding the Peterloo Eleven, was shortlisted for Humanities Research Project of the Year at THE Awards (2020), and she is currently working on three public history projects with Manchester United, The Pankhurst Museum and Knutsford Council. Michala is also an expert on ITV’s DNA Journey and Channel 4’s The Great British Dig.
Lecturer in Public History
Biographical and contact information for Dr Michala Hulme, Lecturer in Public History at the University of Birmingham.
