How Religious Are The British?

The question 'How religious are the British?' seems, at first sight, relatively straightforward. It appears to call for a recital of relevant statistics, which we assume to be readily available. Here, at least, the social scientist might be expected to lead us on to safely factual ground, away from the realm of mere speculation. Unfortunately, the question and the answers are not so simple or straightforward. Those social scientists who have taken an interest in this question soon discovered that it poses formidable problems of definition concerning the nature and dimensions of religiousness, and with respect to measurement. Why should this be so? In order to answer this question, and to arrive at an appreciation of the findings that are available, we will consider the theoretical issues and then some of the different sorts of data that have been collected.