OPINION: Andrew Copson
Chief executive, Humanists UK
The retraction of the Bible Society’s report on Gen Z church attendance (YouGov withdraws survey said to show rising church attendance in England and Wales, 26 March) is a welcome moment of clarity, but the “fraudulent” data identified by YouGov only tells half the story.
The report’s central premise, that young people are flocking back to the pews, was always an outlier when measured against the gold-standard British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey.
Our new analysis of the BSA data shows that six in 10 people aged 16 to 34 identify with no religion. Furthermore, this is not a “phase” of youthful rebellion; 94% of those raised without religion remain non-religious as adults. For this generation, the search for meaning is not found in dogma, but in the humanist values of reason, kindness and personal responsibility.
As the Church of England’s identity falls to just one in 10 of the general population, the disconnect between our national institutions and the British public has never been wider. We must stop treating the non-religious as a demographic absence and recognise them as a community with a positive, ethical worldview that deserves equal standing in the public square.
