FAITH communities in Wales are providing at the least £250 million to the Welsh economy every year through wider community initiatives and volunteering, a study by the Evangelical Alliance (EA) says.
Its report, Faith in Wales, updating a 2008 version, says that, although faith communities have shrunk in the meanwhile, volunteers have proliferated — suggesting that remaining members of congregations are more socially engaged. There were 201 participant faith communities within the survey.
In the past 17 years, the economic contribution of religion communities in Wales has grown by 49 per cent, the info suggest.
In the censuses from 2011-21, the number of people that identified as Christian in Wales fell by 14 per cent, and people of no religion rose by 14.5 per cent.
Danny Webster, the EA’s director of advocacy, who wrote the report, said: “The key change between 2008 when the unique Faith in Wales research was published and now’s that more persons are volunteering per faith community, in reality about twice as many per faith community. The approximate amount that every volunteer volunteers is in regards to the same, at slightly below two hours per week.”
The mean variety of volunteers per place of worship was 22, and the median was 15, showing that some faith groups were seeing larger numbers of volunteers supporting the community each week, he said.
Ninety-seven per cent of religion communities were involved in some type of social motion, starting from family activities, support for the elderly, social activities, green initiatives, refugee support, rehabilitation for prisons, and crime prevention. More than half of all the religion communities ran a foodbank. The support offered by churches and other faiths reached far beyond the religion community into wider society, the report said.
The £250-million estimated value of religion communities’ contribution to society excludes the worth of religion tourism, but includes the employment offered by churches and other faith groups, the hours offered in community work by church volunteers, and the availability of church and other faith buildings for community use.
The study concludes: “The total economic contribution to the Welsh economy, estimated at £250 million, is significantly higher than the Welsh government’s social justice budget of £159 million. This highlights the worthwhile and significant work that faith communities do in service of their local communities.”
Faiths group also told the EA that they might, and would love, to supply more community services to satisfy increased need, through partnership with public services and with higher access to funding.
The Welsh Assembly’s Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, welcomed the report. “Faith is significant to so many individuals in Wales,” she said. “Our faith communities help their local areas in some ways, promoting equality, social inclusion and community cohesion. As a government, we value the input from our faith communities, as a part of a spread of perspectives that are crucial to policy development.”
