How Religious Is Your Borough?

Harry Rosehill
By Harry Rosehill Last edited 68 months ago
How Religious Is Your Borough?

London's streets are filled with religious buildings: churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, gurdwaras and others. Does it ever leave you wondering just how religious your specific area is? Fear not, as we have the answers:

This information comes from London Datastore, and is taken from the Annual Population Survey from 2016.

We've colour coded our graph thusly:

  • 80%-90% of people identify with a religion: dark red.
  • 70%-80% of people identify with a religion: red.
  • 60%-70% of people identify with a religion: green.
  • 50%-60% of people identify with a religion: yellow.
  • Data unavailable: white.

Boroughs south of the river seem less religious in general than their northern counterparts. There's also a noticeable clustering of the most religious boroughs, one section in east London and another to the west.

London's most religious borough is Newham, where a whopping 89.4% of the population identify with a religion — mainly Christianity or Islam.

A church in London's least religious borough, St Mary's Islington. Photo: Matt Brown

There are some fascinating tidbits hidden in here when digging deeper. There are only three boroughs where the largest denomination of people isn't Christian. Tower Hamlets, where Islam leads the way, and Hackney and Islington. In those latter two, people who identify with no religion make up a bigger group than any one religion — perhaps because they're too busy dedicating their lives to the way of the avocado.

Other noteworthy hotspots include Barnet, where 17.5% of the population is Jewish, far more than any other borough. Similarly the largest Hindu borough, Harrow, dwarfs all the rest. 30% of its population is Hindu.

The data also shows that London has the highest percentage of people identifying with a religion, compared to the data's other regional breakdowns. The city sits at 73% people identifying with a religion, compared to the national average of 65%.

Take a look at all the data in full here.

Last Updated 13 July 2018