Religion and belief
The national Census publishes data on religion and belief at local and national levels, which is considered the most reliable. The data regarding religion does not attempt to collect detailed information about the nature of their belief or the extent to which people practice their religion; it only asks which group an individual identifies themselves as belonging to.
The census is undertaken by the Office for National Statistics every 10 years and gives a picture of all the people and households in England and Wales, with the most recent Census being 2021 and the one prior being 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. Bolton’s position is similar, with 47% (139,144) of people describing themselves as Christian, which has decreased from 62.7% (173,608) in 2011. Bolton’s second highest response was “No Religion” 25.8% (76244) which has increased by 8.6% since 2011 from 17.2% (47,567); similar to the national picture.
There were also high proportions of respondents whose religion was “Muslim”; accounting for 19.9% (58,997) of the population which has increased significantly since 2011 when 11.7% (32,385) of people identified as Muslim in Bolton.
When broken down by Ward, Rumworth, Great Lever, Halliwell and Crompton, were the most diverse areas with the highest proportion of people identifying themselves as Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu. Bradshaw, Bromley Cross and Westhoughton North and Chew Moor had the highest proportion of Christians, with Breightmet and Farnworth having the highest proportion of people reporting no religion.
