Counting the converts: investigating change of religion in Scotland and estimating change of religion in England and Wales using data from Scotland’s Census 2001

Abstract

Due to the nature of the question asked in the Census for England and Wales about religion in both the 2001 and the 2011 Census, it is not possible to investigate the phenomenon of change of religion from Census data alone. Scotland's Census 2001 asked questions about both current religion and religion of upbringing and by cross-referencing answers to these two questions, change of religion can be tracked (unfortunately in Scotland‟s 2011 Census a question about religion of upbringing was dropped).

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of change of religion in Scotland using data from Scotland's Census 2001 and then provides an estimate for change of religion in England and Wales in 2011.