Majority of Scots have ‘no religion’, Census reveals

New data has been published in Scotland revealing for the primary time that a majority of individuals within the country wouldn’t have a faith.

Data from Scotland’s 2022 Census is to be published across seven reports in the approaching months, starting with the outcomes on religion and ethnic groups released on Tuesday. 

The latest census asked Scots what religion they belong to. This was an optional query and only 6.2% selected not to reply it.

In response, over half of Scots (51.1%) said that they had no religion, a major increase from the 36.7% who said the identical within the previous 2011 Census.  

‘No religion’ was probably the most common response across nearly all council areas, aside from Na h-Eileanan Siar (the Outer Hebrides) where ‘Church of Scotland’ was probably the most common response, and Inverclyde, where most selected ‘Roman Catholic’. 

Across the entire of Scotland, there was a steep drop in Scots who selected ‘Church of Scotland’, down from 32.4% in 2011 to twenty.4% in 2022. 

The percentage of individuals in Scotland with a minority ethnic background rose from 8.2% to 12.9% in the identical decade. The percentage of those that said Scottish was their only national identity increased from 62.4% to 65.5%, while the share who said they felt each Scottish and British decreased from 18.3% to only 8.2%.

Director of Census Statistics Jon Wroth-Smith said: “These statistics give a captivating insight into religion, ethnicity, national identity and language use across Scotland and the way they’ve modified through the years.

“It is exciting to publish the primary of the subject releases and this, together with our other census data to return, will help local and central government, businesses and charities to plan services within the years ahead.”