One in three Britons who were raised in Christian households lose their faith by adulthood, an eye-opening study has revealed.
The research from the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank that specialises in religious trends, found that about 30 per cent of the British population no longer identifies with the Christian faith they were raised into.
Broken down by denomination, 45 per cent of those raised Protestant and 44 per cent of those raised Catholic are no longer religious. The data lays bare the crisis many churches face – with converts failing to make up the numbers who quit or have died.
Pew's survey studied 24 countries. It told The Times that a number of countries in Latin America, such as Brazil have seen a rise in former Catholics switching to Protestantism.
The report referred to the phenomenon as 'religious switching'. Pew said: 'We use the term instead of 'conversion' because the changes can be in many directions, including from having been raised in a religion to being unaffiliated, and may not involve a formal initiation process.'
Religious switching has also been recorded in Britain but to a much lesser extent. Pew found that out of the Brits who were raised Protestant but later left the church 87 per cent became non-believers but just 4 per cent became Catholic and 8 per cent joined another faith.
Meanwhile lapsed British Catholics were slightly more likely to remain religious - 14 per cent became Protestant and another 14 per cent joined another faith - but an overwhelming 71 per cent registered as non-believers.
Of the countries surveyed, the number of Catholics and Protestants was revealed to be declining across the world.
Churchgoers sitting in the pew. The research from the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank that specialises in religious trends, found that about 30 per cent of the British population no longer identifies with the Christian faith they were raised into
Children at a Catholic mass in Westminster Cathedral. An estimated 44 per cent of those raised Catholic in Britain are no longer religious
Former Protestants make up a sizeable share of the population of countries in nine of the 24 countries while more people left Catholicism than joined in an astonishing 21 of the 24 countries.
Only in Hungary did more people join the Catholic Church than leave it.
The telephone survey of over 1000 Brits appears to pour cold water on the so-called religious revival taking place among Gen Z.
Despite this, the number of young people interested in Christianity does appear to have increased. An online survey from YouGov last year claimed that the number of Gen Z's attending church had surged from less than five per cent to 15 per cent.
And last year, Bible sales in Britain hit their highest level on record after more than doubling compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Total UK sales of the religious text reached £6.3million last year - up 134 per cent in value since £2.7million in 2019, according to analysis of Nielsen BookScan data.
Sales have also risen by 106 per cent in volume over the same period. Between 2024 and 2025, sales went up by 25 per cent in value and 28 per cent in volume.
The increase in recent years is also dramatically higher when comparing the period before Covid between 2008 and 2019, when annual sales grew by only £277,000.