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Religion
The following guidance sets out how to collect and report statistics about religion to ensure statistics about this topic are as comparable as possible across the Government Statistical Service (GSS).
Questions
This section provides guidance on the survey questions to use when collecting information about religion.Where a single question on religion is required for data collection in the UK, religious affiliation is the recommended concept to measure. The following guidance sets out the harmonised country specific religious affiliation question(s) for use in the social surveys in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Interviewer notes:
It is recommended that a show card is used in interviewer-led surveys in GB. Where this is not possible (e.g. telephone interviews), the response categories should be read out by the interviewer in the same order as the appropriate show card.
The instruction ‘please describe’ should be included on the show card following the ‘any other religion’ response option. This should be in non-bold font. This instruction should also be included on paper-based surveys
Use of a show card is not recommended in Northern Ireland. The interviewer should read the question and wait for a spontaneous response. If a response is not forthcoming, the interviewer may prompt using the categories provided in Box 1 for Northern Ireland. Please note that the religion question on the Labour Force Survey for Northern Ireland asks about religious denomination, with the main difference being nine categories, where ‘other protestant’ and ‘other religion’ are combined compared to sixteen on the harmonised principle question.
Box 1. Religion question for GB, UK and Northern Ireland
| Applies to All
Interviewer to read: What is your religion? |
|
| In England
|
Interviewer to read options
|
| In Wales | Interviewer to read options
|
| In Scotland
|
Interviewer to read options
|
| In Northern Ireland | Interviewer to read options
|
Presentation of outputs
This section provides guidance for outputting the survey questions to use when collecting information about religion.
Data presentation of Religion question for England, Wales, GB and UK
The following data presentations should be used for the religion question.
Note: XXX indicates where data will be in the presentation table.
Use this data presentation for the harmonised religion question in England, Wales , GB and UK):
Box 2 Data presentation for harmonised religion question for England, Wales, GB and UK
| No religion | XXX |
| Christian | XXX |
| Buddhist | XXX |
| Hindu | XXX |
| Jewish | XXX |
| Muslim | XXX |
| Sikh | XXX |
| Any other religion | XXX |
It is recommended that UK comparisons are not made using census data as the questions used in the censuses differ. Scotland and Northern Ireland censuses ask a question on ‘belonging’, whilst England and Wales ask about affiliation.
Data presentation of Religion question for Scotland
The following data presentations should be used for the religion question.
Note: XXX indicates where data will be in the presentation table.
Use this data presentation for the harmonised religion question in Scotland
Box 3 Data presentation for harmonised question in Scotland
| No religion | XXX |
| Church of Scotland | XXX |
| Roman Catholic | XXX |
| Other Christian | XXX |
| Buddhist | XXX |
| Hindu | XXX |
| Jewish | XXX |
| Muslim | XXX |
| Sikh | XXX |
| Any other religion | XXX |
Data presentation of Religion question for Northern Ireland
The following data presentations should be used for the religion question.
Note: XXX indicates where data will be in the presentation table.
Use this data presentation for the harmonised religion question in Northern Ireland
Box 4 Data presentation for harmonised question in Northern Ireland
| No religion | XXX |
| Catholic | XXX |
| Presbyterian | XXX |
| Church of Ireland | XXX |
| Methodist | XXX |
| Baptist | XXX |
| Free Presbyterian | XXX |
| Brethren | XXX |
| Protestant – Other, including not specified | XXX |
| Christian – Other, including not specified | XXX |
| Buddhist | XXX |
| Hindu | XXX |
| Jewish | XXX |
| Muslim | XXX |
| Sikh | XXX |
| Any other religion | XXX |
It is recommended that UK comparisons are not made using census data as the questions used in the censuses differ. Scotland and Northern Ireland censuses ask a question on ‘belonging’, whilst England and Wales ask about affiliation.
Inputs
Where a single question on religion is required for data collection in the UK, religious affiliation is the recommended concept to measure. The previous harmonised religion question is provided in Annex A (Box A.1)
It is not recommended that a single Christian category is used across GB or the UK. Breakdown for the Christian denominations that should be used in Scotland and Northern Ireland are provided in Box 1.
It is recommended that a show card is used in interviewer-led surveys in GB. Where this is not possible (e.g. telephone interviews), the response categories should be read out by the interviewer in the same order as the appropriate show card.
The instruction ‘please describe’ should be included on the show card following the ‘any other religion’ response option. This should be in non-bold font. This instruction should also be included on paper-based surveys.
Use of a show card is not recommended in Northern Ireland. The interviewer should read the question and wait for a spontaneous response. If a response is not forthcoming, the interviewer may prompt using the categories provided in Box 1 for Northern Ireland. Please note that the religion question on the Labour Force Survey for Northern Ireland asks about religious denomination, with the main difference being nine categories, where ‘other protestant’ and ‘other religion’ are combined compared to sixteen on the harmonised principle question.
Box A.1 Previous harmonised religion question
| (Spontaneous response for both questions) |
| Relig UK * |
| What is your religion, even if you are not currently practising? |
| Prompt as necessary |
| Major Christian religions include: |
| Anglican |
| Baptist |
| Calvinist |
| Christian Scientist |
| Church of England |
| Church of Scotland |
| Church of Wales |
| Congregational |
| Evangelical |
| Free Church |
| Greek Orthodox |
| Jehovah Witness |
| Methodist |
| Mormons |
| Plymouth Brethren |
| Presbyterian |
| Protestant |
| Quakers (Society of friends) |
| Roman Catholic |
| Seventh Day Adventist |
| United Reformed Church |
| Xian "Christian" |
| Buddh "Buddhist" |
| Hindu "Hindu" |
| Jewish "Jewish" |
| Muslim "Muslim" |
| Sikh "Sikh" |
| Other "Any other religion" |
| None "No religion at all" |
| Applies to all |
| * Whilst the harmonised religion question is also used on Northern Ireland surveys, on ONS surveys, it is only asked in England, Wales and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey uses the following question on denomination instead: |
| IREND2 (religious denomination) Northern Ireland |
| What is your religious denomination? |
| 1. Catholic |
| 2. Presbyterian |
| 3. Church of Ireland |
| 4. Methodist |
| 5. other protestant |
| 6. other religion |
| 7. no denomination |
| 8. under 16 years |
| 9. unwilling to answer |
| Applies to all in Northern Ireland |
| Other Protestant includes: |
| Baptist |
| Free Presbyterian |
| Unitarian |
| Congregational |
| Plymouth Brethren |
| Church of Nazarene |
| Church of England |
| Pentecostal |
| Mormon, etc. |
| Other religions include: |
| Jewish |
| Hindu |
| Sikh |
| Buddhist |
| Muslim |
| This is a voluntary question. Respondents who refuse to answer are coded as unwilling. |
Email: gsshelp@statistics.gov.uk
Documents
- File
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National Identity and Religion (PDF, 0.09MB)