Religion and Community Cohesion

The Department for Communities and Local Government published 2008-09 Citizenship Survey: Community Cohesion Topic Report by Cheryl Lloyd on 18 February 2010. It runs to 196 pages and is available for free download at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1473353.pdf

This is the first of the projected four reports from the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey, which is the fifth in a series initiated by Government in 2001.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted by NatCen between April 2008 and March 2009 with a representative core sample of 9,335 adults aged 16 and over in England and Wales, and with an ethnic minority booster of 5,582 adults.

The eight substantive chapters in the report, and the associated tables, cover: perceptions of community cohesion, views on the immediate neighbourhood, views on the local area, fear of crime, meaningful interaction with people from different backgrounds, social networks, attitudes to immigration, and sense of belonging to Britain.

In each case the results are analysed by religious affiliation. Some of the differences between religious groups arising from the current report are:

• People of no religion are less likely to feel a strong sense of belonging to their neighbourhood than those professing a religion, 71 per cent against 79 per cent, with Sikhs recording the highest figure (88 per cent) and Buddhists the lowest (64 per cent)
• People of no religion are less worried about crime than those professing a religion, 34 per cent against 43 per cent, with Hindus most worried (60 per cent) and Buddhists the least (34 per cent)
• People of no religion are more likely to have meaningful interactions with citizens from different ethnic or religious groups than those professing a religion, 85 per cent against 79 per cent, with Hindus having the most contact (96 per cent) and Christians the least (78 per cent)
• People of no religion are less likely to call for a major cut in the number of immigrants coming to Britain than those professing a religion, 45 per cent against 53 per cent, with Christians most exercised on the matter (56 per cent) and Muslims the least (23 per cent)
• People of no religion are less likely to feel a strong sense of belonging to Britain than those professing a religion, 81 per cent against 85 per cent, with Sikhs feeling the greatest sense of identity (91 per cent) and Buddhists the least (71 per cent)

The dataset from the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey will be available for secondary analysis in due course from the Economic and Social Data Service. Datasets from the four previous surveys, in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007-08, are already held there (Study Numbers 4754, 5087, 5367 and 5739 respectively).