You asked
Please provide the number of men and women in the UK with religious affiliation.
I would also like to know how many people in the UK follow any religion, which religion they follow and a breakdown of how many of these people are male and female.
We said
Thank you for your freedom of information request relating to the number of men and women in the UK with religious affiliation.
The ONS is responsible for the Census in England and Wales and has published information on religion from the 2011 Census online. The table DC2107 (https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/dc2107ew) shows religion by sex and age.
| All persons | Males | Females | |
| All categories: Religion | 56,075,912 | 27,573,376 | 28,502,536 |
| Christian | 33,243,175 | 15,365,306 | 17,877,869 |
| Buddhist | 247,743 | 116,646 | 131,097 |
| Hindu | 816,633 | 421,054 | 395,579 |
| Jewish | 263,346 | 128,313 | 135,033 |
| Muslim | 2,706,066 | 1,409,290 | 1,296,776 |
| Sikh | 423,158 | 214,043 | 209,115 |
| Other religion | 240,530 | 106,125 | 134,405 |
| No religion | 14,097,229 | 7,747,750 | 6,349,479 |
| Religion not stated | 4,038,032 | 2,064,849 | 1,973,183 |
You may also be interested in an article published on the ONS website in 2013: Full story: What does the Census tell us about religion in 2011
For information relating to Scotland, please contact National Records of Scotland (NRS) (http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/contact-us) and for Northern Ireland please contact the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (https://www.nisra.gov.uk/contact).
Since the 2011 Census, ONS has published tables on religion based on the Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey, which are broken down by country (in UK) but not by sex. The latest figures for 2016 are:
Great Britain:
| Count | |
| 1 No Religion | 22,121,052 |
| 2 Christian (all denominations) | 34,318,451 |
| 3 Buddhist | 281,580 |
| 4 Hindu | 964,166 |
| 5 Jewish | 299,461 |
| 6 Muslim | 3,307,518 |
| 7 Sikh | 412,582 |
| 8 Any Other Religion | 1,030,113 |
| Total | 62,734,923 |
And for Northern Ireland
| Count | |
| 1 Catholic | 774,002 |
| 2 Presbyterian | 314,791 |
| 3 Church of Ireland | 236,143 |
| 4 Methodist | 36,682 |
| 5 Other Protestant | 146,427 |
| 6 Other religion | 49,710 |
| 7 No denomination | 183,888 |
| 8 Under 16 years | 85,228 |
| 9 Unwilling to answer | 12,532 |
| Total | 1,839,403 |
The full tables are available here: Tables produced using the Annual Population Survey and the Labour Force Survey: ethnicity and religion broken down by country
The customer services team of our Social Services division in ONS provide an ad hoc analysis service, including tabulations of Labour force (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) data, both of which contain question variables relating to Religion. This service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs where appropriate. Details of the religion variables included in these datasets can be viewed in the LFS User Guidance: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyuserguidance If you would like to enquire about this service then please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk
If you need further assistance or have any further census-related questions, you can contact Census Customer Services directly. They will be glad to help and the process is faster than using a Freedom of Information request:
Web: https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/censuscustomerservices
Email: census.customerservices@ons.gsi.gov.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1329 444972
Address: Census Customer Services, ONS, Titchfield, Fareham, Hants, PO15 5RR