Analysis of Religion in the 2001 Census

ANALYSIS OF RELIGION IN THE 2001 CENSUS: Summary Report

Religion of opposite sex co-habiting couples

Table 1.9: Religion of opposite sex co-habiting couples by current religion - All opposite sex co-habiting couples in households

Column Percentages

At least one partner is…	Church of Scotland	Roman Catholic	Other Christian	Buddhist	Hindu	Jewish	Muslim	Sikh	Another Religion	No Religion	Not Answered
Religion of other partner:
Church of Scotland	42.6	35.2	33.3	13.8	25.8	31.6	13.3	20.0	11.6	20.6	17.8
Roman Catholic	19.6	20.4	14.4	7.2	11.3	15.4	12.9	9.6	8.9	14.7	11.0
Other Christian	7.2	5.6	15.4	6.1	6.2	7.3	6.0	10.4	7.8	5.3	4.2
Buddhist	0.1	0.1	0.2	13.8	1.0	1.3	0.8	0.0	0.6	0.2	0.2
Hindu	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	12.4	0.0	0.6	2.6	0.1	0.0	0.1
Jewish	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.7	0.0	8.1	0.0	0.9	0.2	0.1	0.1
Muslim	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.9	3.1	0.0	28.8	4.3	0.1	0.2	0.3
Sikh	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0	3.1	0.4	1.0	19.1	0.1	0.0	0.1
Another Religion	0.5	0.6	1.4	3.4	2.1	2.6	0.8	3.5	25.4	1.2	1.4
No Religion	27.1	34.8	32.0	48.4	27.8	30.3	29.2	21.7	40.0	54.8	25.7
Not Answered	2.7	3.0	2.9	5.4	7.2	3.0	6.7	7.8	5.2	3.0	39.1
Base	68,751	38,207	14,906	442	97	234	504	115	2,688	90,480	10,391

Table 1.9 shows the same information for opposite sex co-habiting couples. One of the most striking differences (although perhaps not surprising) is that there is a much higher proportion of each faith group where at least one of the partners does not have any current faith. For example, 27% of co-habiting couples where at least one partner is Church of Scotland are Church of Scotland/No current faith partnerships. This compares to a rate of 13% for married couples.

Table 1.10 shows, for all opposite sex couples (both married and co-habiting), what proportion are co-habiting couples

Table 1.10: Proportion of co-habiting couples (opposite sex) as proportion of all opposite sex couples (both married and cohabiting), by current religion - All opposite sex couples (both married and co-habiting)

Percentages

At least one partner is…
Church of Scotland	10.4
Roman Catholic	15.4
Other Christian	11.9
Buddhist	18.9
Hindu	6.2
Jewish	11.5
Muslim	5.3
Sikh	7.0
Another Religion	34.7
No Religion	13.4
Not Answered	17.0
Base	1,159,122

The table shows that of the named main religions (i.e. excluding Another Religion and Not Answered), couples involving at least one Buddhist are most likely to be co-habiting (19% of all opposite sex couples are co-habiting). The next highest proportion is for couples where at least one of the couple is Roman Catholic: 15.4% of all opposite sex couples are co-habiting. This compares with 10.4% for Church of Scotland, which may partly reflect the somewhat older age profile for the latter. Perhaps not surprisingly the smallest proportion is found for couples where at least one is Muslim: only 5.3% of these couples are co-habiting.

Ascribed religion of children by religion of parents

The religion of children will generally have been ascribed by their parents (i.e. the person completing the Census form on their behalf). Table 1.11 presents data on the ascribed religion of children against the religion of their parents, where both parents report the same religion. It is worth noting that there may be cases where children consider themselves to have a different religion (or no religion) compared to their parents' religion. In those cases where a parent has completed the form for their child and differences in beliefs exist, the wrong religion may be coded.

Table 1.11: Ascribed current religion of child by current religion of parents (where both parents report the same religion) - All Children with Parents in a Couple

Column percentages

Religion of parents….	Church of Scotland	Roman Catholic	Other Christian	Buddhist	Hindu	Jewish	Muslim	Sikh	Another Religion	No Religion	Not Answered
Religion of child:
Church of Scotland	87.0	1.4	4.5	1.7	0.8	0.7	0.1	0.2	3.1	3.1	1.9
Roman Catholic	0.7	91.4	0.6	0.6	0.4	0.7	0.2	0.0	1.7	1.0	1.3
Other Christian	0.4	0.2	78.9	1.3	0.0	0.2	0.2	0.3	2.4	0.5	0.5
Buddhist	0.0	0.0	0.0	65.2	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Hindu	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	91.9	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0
Jewish	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	94.2	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.1
Muslim	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.9	1.2	0.2	94.9	1.0	0.5	0.1	0.3
Sikh	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.1	93.5	0.0	0.0	0.1
Another Religion	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.4	0.0	0.4	0.0	0.0	64.7	0.2	0.3
No Religion	9.1	3.7	11.6	23.5	1.4	1.2	0.5	1.5	21.8	91.1	3.8
Not Answered	2.7	3.1	4.0	6.3	3.9	2.3	3.8	3.3	5.5	4.0	91.6
Base	342,532	101,745	44,284	702	1,126	822	14,792	2,126	1,568	203,411	24,869

The religion of children is heavily influenced by the religion of their parents with over 90% of children with Roman Catholic, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim or Sikh parents being ascribed the same religion. The lowest proportion of children being ascribed the same religion as their parents is where both parents are Buddhists or have Another Religion; 65.2% of children with Buddhist parents and 64.7% of children with parents from Another Religion are ascribed this same religion. The remaining majority are described as having no religion.

Family Structure and Number of Dependent Children

The Census defines a family according to the following definition:

'A family comprises a group of people consisting of a married or co-habiting couple with or without child(ren), or a lone parent with child(ren).'

Over two-thirds (72%) of families headed by a Muslim have at least one dependent ³ child. This compares to 36% of families from the Church of Scotland and 37% of Jewish families having dependent children. This will undoubtedly be related to the relative age structure of the different groups. Chart 1.2 showed that over a quarter of people who list their current religion as Church of Scotland or Jewish are over pensionable age. Thus, it is not surprising that both these groups are much less likely to have dependent children.

Chart 1.9: Families with dependent children as a percentage of all families, by current religion - All Families

Percentages

Table 1.12 also shows that Muslim families are most likely to contain large numbers of children; 34% contain three or more dependent children. Similarly, over a quarter (27%) of families headed by a Sikh have three or more dependent children. Those least likely to have three or more children are Hindus with only 11% of such families having this number of dependent children.

Table 1.12: Number of dependent children as a percentage of all families with dependent children, by current religion - All Families with dependent children

Row percentages

Religion of family reference person 4	One dependent child	Two dependent children	Three or more dependent children	Base
Church of Scotland	46	41	14	226,969
Roman Catholic	48	37	15	107,579
Other Christian	43	39	18	38,229
Buddhist	51	35	14	916
Hindu	52	38	11	745
Jewish	42	43	15	636
Muslim	34	32	34	7,174
Sikh	33	40	27	1,012
Another Religion	48	38	14	2,896
No religion	46	39	14	205,686
Not Answered	47	37	16	24,652
All Religion Groups	46	39	15	616,494

Lone Parent Families

Chart 1.10: Lone parent families with dependent children as a percentage of all families with dependent children, by current religion - All Families with dependent children

Percentages

Roman Catholic families with dependent children are the most likely to be lone parent families (34%). This is followed by Buddhist families (30%) and families headed by someone with no religious affiliation (30%).

Hindu families with dependent children are least likely to be lone parent families, at 12%. Lone parent families are also less common among the Sikh, Muslim and Jewish communities.

Multiple Family Households

The 2001 Census question asks for the relationship of each person in the household to every other member (except in large households). This enables the identification of concealed families (second or subsequent families in a household), families containing step-children and the relationship between families.

Each individual within a household is allocated to a single family or is classified as an 'ungrouped individual'. One or more of these families and/or one or more individual(s) makes up a household.'

Table 1.13 shows the number of families in each household by the religion of the household reference person (HRP).

The household reference person (HRP) replaces the Census term 'Head of Household'. For a person living alone, that person is clearly the HRP. If the household contains only one family (with or without ungrouped individuals) the HRP is the same as the Family Reference Person (FRP). If there is more than one family in the household, the HRP is chosen from among the FRPs using the same criteria as for choosing the FRP (economic activity, then age, then order on the form). If there is no family, then the HRP is chosen from the individuals using the same criteria.

Table 1.13 shows that Buddhists and Jews are most likely to live in single person households, 19.4% and 19.3% respectively for each group.

People from the Church of Scotland (80.9%) and Roman Catholics (81.1%) are most likely to live in households consisting of 1 family only. Only 1% of people from the Church of Scotland and 1.4% of Roman Catholics live in households which consist of 2 or more families.

In contrast, 11.8% of Sikhs and 10.0% of Muslims live in households comprising 2 families. A further 3.7% of Sikhs and 1.7% of Muslims live in households which are made up of 3 or more families.

Table 1.13: Household Structure by current religion of Household Reference Person (HRP) - All People in Households

Column percentages

		Church of Scotland	Roman Catholic	Other Christian	Buddhist	Hindu	Jewish	Muslim	Sikh	Another Religion	No Religion	Not Answered	All People in Households
0 - Couples/Lone Parent families	Number of Ungrouped Individuals	18.1	17.5	21.0	28.9	20.2	25.6	8.5	7.8	36.6	15.8	17.4	17.5
	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	1	16.1	14.5	15.6	19.4	8.1	19.3	5.0	4.6	18.1	12.2	13.6	14.5
	2	1.4	1.8	2.3	4.5	4.3	2.7	1.8	1.7	6.5	1.9	2.4	1.7
	3	0.4	0.6	1.3	2.1	3.8	1.6	0.8	0.8	5.5	0.9	0.7	0.7
	4+	0.2	0.6	1.7	3.0	4.0	2.0	0.9	0.7	6.5	0.9	0.6	0.6
1 - Couple/Lone Parent family	Number of Ungrouped Individuals	80.9	81.1	78.0	69.4	76.4	74.2	79.8	76.7	62.5	83.1	81.3	81.2
	0	77.6	76.7	74.0	63.8	70.0	70.9	68.8	64.0	57.3	79.0	75.7	77.3
	1	3.0	3.9	3.4	4.7	5.4	2.8	8.8	11.0	3.8	3.6	4.6	3.5
	2	0.2	0.4	0.3	0.7	0.7	0.2	1.7	1.5	0.9	0.4	0.6	0.3
	3	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.2	0.4	0.2	0.3	0.1	0.2	0.1
	4+	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.0
2 - Couples/Lone Parent families	Number of Ungrouped Individuals	1.0	1.4	1.0	1.6	3.1	0.3	10.0	11.8	0.9	1.1	1.3	1.2
	0	1.0	1.3	0.9	1.3	3.0	0.2	7.6	8.5	0.7	1.0	1.1	1.1
	1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.1	0.0	1.7	2.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
	2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	4+	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
3 or more Couples/Lone Parent families	Number of Ungrouped Individuals	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.0	1.7	3.7	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0
	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.0	1.3	2.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.9	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	4+	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Base		2,112,468	792,021	333,664	6,385	5,306	6,191	42,112	6,537	25,854	1,379,353	266,114	4,976,005

Urban and Rural Scotland

The Scottish Executive Urban Rural Classification is defined as follows:

Large Urban Areas	Settlements of over 125,000 people.
Other Urban Areas	Settlements of 10,000 to 125,000 people.
Accessible Small Towns	Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more.
Remote Small Towns	Settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more.
Accessible Rural	Settlements of less than 3,000 people and within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more.
Remote Rural	Settlements of less than 3,000 people and with a drive time of over 30 minutes to a settlement of 10,000 or more.

The classification is based on the size of settlements and also how close the settlements are to large settlements in terms of 'drivetimes'.

Table 1.14: Urban and Rural Scotland by current religion of All People in Households

Row percentages

	Large Urban Areas	Other Urban Areas	Accessible Small Towns	Remote Small Towns	Accessible Rural	Remote Rural	Base
Church of Scotland	33	30	12	3	15	6	2,112,468
Roman Catholic	54	28	8	1	7	2	792,021
Other Christian	32	27	11	3	16	11	333,664
Buddhist	52	21	6	2	12	7	6,385
Hindu	74	16	4	1	4	1	5,306
Jewish	81	8	3	1	5	2	6,191
Muslim	79	13	3	1	3	0	42,112
Sikh	77	14	4	0	4	1	6,537
Another Religion	51	22	7	2	11	7	25,854
No religion	39	30	11	3	13	5	1,379,353
Not Answered	44	29	9	2	11	5	266,114
All Religion Groups	39	29	10	3	13	6	4,976,005

There are large differences between the proportions of people from different religion groups across the different areas of Scotland. There are very high proportions of people from the Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faiths living in large urban areas (this corresponds with the high density of certain minority ethnic groups within these areas). More than 50% of the Roman Catholic population in Scotland live in large urban areas compared with around one third of the population who list their current faith as Church of Scotland.

There is a large proportion of people who describe their current faith as 'Other Christian' who live in rural areas (27% of the total compared with only 19% of the overall Scottish population). This is perhaps not surprising since this will encompass areas where certain Christian traditions (Free Church of Scotland and the Free Presbeteryian Church of Scotland) are still prevalent.

The proportions of people by urban/rural classification responding that they have no current religion are almost identical to the overall population profile for Scotland.

Household Access to Cars

Table 1.15: Number of cars or van available for use by current religion of All People in Households

Row percentages

	No car or van	1 car or van	2 cars or vans	3 or more cars or vans	Base
Church of Scotland	23	44	26	6	2,112,468
Roman Catholic	32	42	22	4	792,021
Other Christian	21	45	28	7	333,664
Buddhist	28	45	22	5	6,385
Hindu	29	38	26	7	5,306
Jewish	20	34	36	9	6,191
Muslim	22	43	26	10	42,112
Sikh	16	36	33	15	6,537
Another Religion	31	41	22	6	25,854
No religion	25	44	26	5	1,379,353
Not Answered	35	41	20	4	266,114
All Religion Groups	26	44	25	6	4,976,005

Table 1.15 shows the proportion of people within each religion group who live in households with a certain number of cars or vans. Disregarding those who did not answer the question on religion, the group with the largest proportion of people living in a household with no car is the Roman Catholic group. Buddhists and Hindu people are also more likely than the overall average to live in households with no access to cars or vans. However, previous work has shown a very strong link between location and access to cars. The Scottish Executive publication Social Focus on Urban Rural Scotland ⁵ showed that 46% of households in large urban areas do not have access to a car or van compared to only 21% in remote rural Scotland.

The different age profiles of the religion groups may also be a factor in whether or not they have access to a car, as fewer older people will have a driving licence.

Given the different settlement patterns of different religion groups, we need to take this into account when considering these data. Table 1.16 shows the proportion of households within each of the area types that has no access to a car or a van.

Table 1.16: Proportion of each current religion group within each area type (urban rural classification) with access to no cars or vans - All People in Households with access to no cars/vans

Percentages

	Large Urban Areas	Other Urban Areas	Accessible Small Towns	Remote Small Towns	Accessible Rural	Remote Rural	Base
Church of Scotland	33	23	19	25	12	13	494,014
Roman Catholic	39	27	22	31	14	15	252,626
Other Christian	31	22	16	23	8	11	68,924
Buddhist	40	20	13	25	10	12	1,799
Hindu	33	18	9	40	9	21	1,532
Jewish	20	31	13	57	5	23	1,236
Muslim	25	11	9	16	5	10	9,084
Sikh	17	16	16	21	6	24	1,047
Another Religion	41	27	18	25	8	12	7,888
No religion	34	24	19	27	10	10	344,197
Not Answered	44	33	16	32	16	15	92,206
All Religion Groups	35	25	20	26	11	12	1,274,553

Table 1.16 shows that even when account is taken of the different locations in which different people live, there are still large differences between households from different religion groups in terms of the proportion of households who do not have access to a car or van. Whilst overall 35% of people living in households in large urban areas do not have access to a car or van, that proportion is considerably smaller for Sikhs, Jewish and Muslim people (17%, 20% and 25% respectively). Roman Catholic and Buddhists however have a higher than overall proportion.

Note: Table 1.16 should be treated with some caution since some of the numbers involved are very small. For example, the table suggests that 57% of Jewish people living in remote small towns live in households which do not have access to a car or van. Whilst this may be true, there are only a total of 37 Jewish people living in remote small towns (1% of the total Jewish population) of which 21 of them live in households with no access to cars or vans.

Local Authority Analysis

Information on the religious make-up of each local authority area is provided in Table 1.17

Nearly half (49%) of people from Jewish backgrounds live in East Renfrewshire. The remaining majority of Jewish people live in the large urban areas of Glasgow (17%) and Edinburgh (12%).

The Muslim and Sikh population are most heavily concentrated in Glasgow City with 42% and 36% of each religion group living within the city.

Buddhists and Hindus are most likely to live in the large cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. 17% of Buddhists live in Glasgow and another 17% live in Edinburgh. Similarly, 22% of Hindus live in Glasgow and a further 22% live in Edinburgh.

People from the Church of Scotland were spread across Scotland.

Just over one in five Roman Catholics (21%) live in Glasgow. A further 14% of Roman Catholics live in North Lanarkshire. In contrast, 11% of all people in Scotland live in Glasgow and 6% live in North Lanarkshire.

Table 1.17: Proportion of each religion group living in each local authority by current religion - All People

Column percentages

	Church of Scotland	Roman Catholic	Other Christian	Buddhist	Hindu	Jewish	Muslim	Sikh	Another Religion	No Religion	Not Answered	All People
Aberdeen City	4	1	5	8	9	2	4	2	7	6	4	4
Aberdeenshire	5	1	6	3	1	1	1	1	3	5	4	4
Angus	3	1	2	1	1	0	0	0	2	2	2	2
Argyll & Bute	2	1	3	2	1	1	0	0	2	2	2	2
Clackmannanshire	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1
Dumfries & Galloway	4	1	4	5	1	1	0	1	2	3	2	3
Dundee City	2	4	3	4	7	1	7	3	4	3	3	3
East Ayrshire	3	2	2	1	0	1	1	1	1	2	2	2
East Dunbartonshire	2	3	2	1	10	1	2	13	1	2	2	2
East Lothian	2	1	2	1	0	1	0	0	2	2	2	2
East Renfrewshire	2	2	1	2	4	49	5	6	1	1	2	2
Edinburgh, City of	7	6	11	17	22	12	16	12	21	12	8	9
Eilean Siar	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Falkirk	3	2	2	1	1	1	2	1	2	3	3	3
Fife	7	4	7	6	3	2	4	3	6	9	6	7
Glasgow City	8	21	7	17	22	17	42	36	14	9	16	11
Highland	5	2	7	4	1	1	1	1	4	4	4	4
Inverclyde	1	4	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	2	2
Midlothian	2	1	1	1	1	0	1	0	1	2	2	2
Moray	2	1	3	2	0	0	0	0	2	2	1	2
North Ayrshire	3	3	2	2	0	1	0	3	2	2	3	3
North Lanarkshire	6	14	4	3	3	1	5	3	3	4	7	6
Orkney Islands	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Perth & Kinross	3	1	3	2	1	1	1	0	3	3	2	3
Renfrewshire	3	5	2	2	2	1	1	4	2	3	4	3
Scottish Borders	3	1	3	2	0	1	0	0	2	2	2	2
Shetland Islands	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
South Ayrshire	3	1	2	1	1	1	0	1	2	2	2	2
South Lanarkshire	6	8	4	3	4	3	3	3	3	5	7	6
Stirling	2	1	2	2	1	1	1	1	3	2	2	2
West Dunbartonshire	2	4	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	2	2
West Lothian	3	3	2	2	2	1	2	1	2	4	3	3
Base	2,146,251	803,732	344,562	6,830	5,564	6,448	42,557	6,572	26,974	1,394,460	278,061	5,062,011