Links and Resources

A Vision of Britain through Time

An important geo-historical website, this  includes a section on Roots & Religion in its ‘Statistical Atlas’ section.

It provides maps of religious affiliation from the 2001 Census, and maps of church attendances from the 1851 Census.

The ‘Census Reports’ section also indexes the 1851 Census Report, with a list of all the tables published for England and Wales and for Scotland.

This site and web resource was developed partly to foster understanding of the Muslim community in Britain, with a specific interest in cataloguing and describing each active mosque in Britain in the ‘Map and Directory’ section. This is underpinned by the best dataset currently available of mosques in Britain, including geocoding of mosques, information on their theological or cultural orientation, capacity, and facilities for women. It is continually updated by site developer and independent researcher Mehmood Naqshbandi.

2. UK statistical sources online

The ESDS, run by the Universities of Essex and Manchester, is a national data archiving and dissemination service. Surveys such as the British Social Attitudes survey and Eurobarometer can be ordered here. The site also acts as a portal to other surveys, such as the European Social Survey.

New users must register to gain access to datasets. Access restrictions may apply to some users or usages – you may need a higher education affiliation and they are generally for non-commercial use.

Hosts data drawn from the 2001 England and Wales Census and the quarterly Labour Force Survey. It also provides reports explaining the data, and breakdowns by age, sex, and geography.

methods@manchester

3. Statistics provided by religious bodies

Christian Research, incorporated into the Bible Society in 2008, published seven hard copy editions of Religious Trends between 1997 and 2007 as an annual or biannual publication. Religious Trends provided data on church membership, ministry and churches for different Christian denominations, alongside reports of survey and official data on the UK population, and tables of data from its periodic church censuses.

The first edition was published as an outgrowth of the UK Christian Handbook, a crucial directory now available online to subscribers.

Central resource hosting the annual Church Statistics, as well as a summary of relevant polling data, cathedral attendance, data on the clergy, and reports analysing published data.

The JPR has conducted several surveys of the Jewish community in Britain, as well as publishing reports analysing data from the 2001 Census.

Its Director of Social and Demographic Research is Dr David Graham, an expert on the social demographics of the British Jewish community.

Methodist Church of Great Britain

4. Other faith community contact points

For these organisations, few data appear to be available online. We advise contacting the organisations themselves to inquire further. We make no claim to these bodies being representative of all members of the relevant community – they should serve as a useful starting point.

5. Sociology of religion research centres

Founded in 1975, this is one of the largest study groups within the British Sociological Association.

The current Chair is Dr Abby Day.

A joint funding programme of the AHRC and the ESRC, sponsoring research on the relationship between religion and society.

The Programme is directed by Professor Linda Woodhead and fosters collaborative research across the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Information Network Focus on Religious Movements. Independent charity based at the London School of Economics, founded in 1988 by Professor Eileen Barker. This provides advice to those looking to find out more about new and alternative religious movements, and also hosts a unique database of over 1,000 NRMs.

INFORM

Both a shared space and an institute for encouragement of mutual understanding  between people of different faiths and beliefs.

The Multi-Faith Centre also publishes the directory Religions in the UK, edited by Professor Paul Weller, of which the fourth edition (2007) is the most recent.

This includes a directory of over 5,000 listings of local and national organisations in the Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Zoroastrian communities in the UK, and contact points for a range of other religious groupings.

The Non-Religion and Secularity Research Network is directed by Dr Stephen Bullivant, Dr Stacey Gutkowski and Lois Lee. It was established in 2008 as an international, interdisciplinary network of researchers. Its aim is to to centralise existing research on the topic of non-religion and secularity, facilitate discussion, and run a scholarly journal, Secularism and Nonreligion.

6. Public policy research and qualitative sources

ESDS Qualidata

A crucial resource for data on subjective religious experience. Based at the University of Wales, Lampeter, this holds over 6,000 accounts of religious experience, compiled since 1924. The Centre also maintains a library of over 2,000 volumes.

Alister Hardy

Religious Experience Research Centre

Theos is a ‘public theology think-tank’ which sponsors surveys, commissions and produces reports, and hosts events. Its mission is to provide research, analysis and advice on religion and socio-political change, and to make a case for the place of religion in public life.

ippr is a progressive think-tank which runs a research stream on faith, identity and the state among other projects.