The Evangelical Alliance Talking Jesus report for 2022 makes interesting reading. In particular, questions repeated from an earlier survey in 2015 allow us to note changes in UK beliefs.
Perhaps most striking is that those describing themselves as Christians has dropped from 58% to 48% over that period (those who describe themselves as practicing their faith is 6%). The second largest group were not Muslims or atheists but simply those preferring to declare no affiliation. This group has risen from 11% in 2015 to 26% in 2022. This suggests not so much a rise in militant opposition to religion but a decline in confidence or interest in religious faith.
One particularly notable statistic that we can engage with in this column is the attitude to Jesus as a historical person. In 2015, 61% of the UK population believed that Jesus was a real historical figure whereas in 2022. that figure has dropped to 54%. In 2015, 22% believed Jesus was a myth, but in 2022 that has risen to 28%. Even more concerning, when the age groups are broken down, the survey shows that among 18–24-year-olds only 49% believe that Jesus was a historical person.
