UK – Church attendance propped up by immigrants

Eastern European and African Christians have helped stem falling congregation numbers, according to research data published by The Guardian.

The fall in church membership previously anticipated for 2020 will now not be evident until 2025, according to the research by Peter Brierley, whose second edition of UK Church Statistics, is due to be published soon. Brierley said that the alleviation in the rate of decline was due partly to “the large number of new black and other immigrant churches which have been started” and “the increasing success of new gatherings” in the fresh expressions movement.

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In 2013, there were 5.4 million church members in the UK, 10% of the adult population, taken as 15 and over, 300,000 fewer than five years previously in 2008, when it was 12%. It is likely to continue to decline at about the same rate for the next 12 years, reaching 9% by 2020 and 8% by 2025, if present trends continue.

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