From Satanism to Scientology: New Census data reveals the number of people practicing different religions in Crawley

The religion question is voluntary and in 2021, 94.0% (56.0 million) of usual residents answered the question, an increase from 92.9% (52.1 million) in 2011.

For the first time in a census of England and Wales, less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people) described themselves as “Christian”, a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% (33.3 million) in 2011; despite this decrease, “Christian” remained the most common response to the religion question.

“No religion” was the second most common response, increasing by 12.0 percentage points to 37.2% (22.2 million) from 25.2% (14.1 million) in 2011.

There were increases in the number of people who described themselves as “Muslim” (3.9 million, 6.5% in 2021, up from 2.7 million, 4.9% in 2011) and “Hindu” (1.0 million, 1.7% in 2021, up from 818,000, 1.5% in 2011).

What is the most practiced religion in Crawley?

The most common response from residents in Crawley was “Christian” (50,497) while “No Religion” had 41,455 responses.

11,521 described themselves as “Muslim”, 6,090 are “Hindu”, 851 are “Sikh”, 529 are “Buddhist”, 157 responded as “Other Religion” and 96 are “Jewish”.

13 residents described themselves as “Wicca”, which is a modern Pagan religion, while 121 responded with “Pagan” as their religion.

10 people answered “Scientology” in their census.

The other religions residents describe themselves in Crawley are (number of people practicing in brackets):

Jain (86)

Spiritualist (66)

Agnostic (60)

Spiritual (38)

Atheist (27)

Mixed religion (27)

Ravidassia (17)

Zoroastrian (14)

Humanist (13)

Rastafarian (13)

Satanism (13)

Heathen (11)

Baha’i (9)

Believe in God (8)

Deist (4)

Own belief system (3)

Pantheism (3)

Taoist (3)

Alevi (2)

Braham Kumari (2)

Druid (1)

Reconstructionist (1)

Shamanism (1)

Thelemite (1)

What is the most diverse region in England?

London remains the most religiously diverse region of England in 2021, with over a quarter (25.3%) of all usual residents reporting a religion other than “Christian”; the North East and South West are the least religiously diverse regions, with 4.2% and 3.2%, respectively, selecting a religion other than “Christian”.