Religious Statistics in Great Britain: An Historical Introduction
Clive D. Field, Universities of Birmingham and Manchester
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Article contents 1. Statistics Collected by the State 1.1 Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 1.2 Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 2. Statistics Collected by Faith Communities 2.1 Established Churches: Church of England 2.2 Established Churches: Wales and Scotland 2.5 Free Churches: Baptists, Congregationalists and Quakers 2.6 Free Churches: Other Denominations 2.7 Roman Catholic Church: Before the Second World War 2.8 Roman Catholic Church: After the Second World War 2.9 Ecumenical Initiatives: National 2.10 Ecumenical Initiatives: International 2.11 Non-Christian Faiths: General 2.12 Non-Christian Faiths: Judaism 3. Statistics Collected by Other Agencies 4. Future Needs and Prospects for Religious Statistics Select Bibliography of the Religious History of Modern Britain General Church of England Free Churches Roman Catholicism Sects Judaism Islam New Religious Movements Irreligion Wales Scotland Recent Publications on the 1851 Religious Census of England and Wales General Commentaries Local Studies Contemporary Regional Studies of Religion as Social Capital in England and Wales Church of England Clergy Visitation Returns of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Primary Sources: Editions of Returns Primary Sources: Editions of Specula Secondary Sources: Visitation Process Secondary Sources: Use of Returns Abraham Hume’s Contribution to Religious Statistics and Sociology Local Censuses of Church Attendance in Great Britain, 1881-82 Newman Demographic Survey and Pastoral Research Centre John Highet’s Contribution to Scottish Religious Statistics Local Censuses of Church Attendance in Great Britain, 1901-12 |
ScopeThis essay summarizes the development of religious statistics in Great Britain from the seventeenth century to the present day. In particular, it describes, in very broad and succinct terms, the contributions which have been made to the quantification of religion by the state, faith communities and other agencies. A few reflections on future needs and prospects are also offered.
This review does not aspire to be comprehensive, in the sense of covering all the sources or all the collecting bodies. Neither does it attempt to discuss methodological and interpretative issues in any depth, nor to present the actual primary data (some of which will be found elsewhere on this website).
The text is designed to be used in conjunction with the database on this website, where additional bibliographical and methodological information will be found on the overwhelming majority of the individual sources which are mentioned here. For this reason, endnotes in each section have been kept to a minimum. To avoid encumbering the overview with excessive detail, a few topics calling for extended treatment, and which do not lend themselves to inclusion in the database, are dealt with in appendices.
It is naturally impossible to divorce the statistics of British religion from the ecclesiastical and faith context which gave rise to them. Although some key facts and dates are mentioned in passing, a full religious history of Britain is beyond the scope of this introduction. Some suggestions for background reading are made in Appendix 1, but it has not been possible to list there works on the history of particular Free Church denominations. |
