Millions of people still attend church regularly in the UK and one of the things they like to do is give cash to charity, a new survey shows.

More than one in ten UK adults attend church at least once a month and of these, more than seven in ten give at least £10 to charity each year, according to the survey for the child sponsorship charity Compassion.

Nearly one in ten regular church goers sponsors a child in the developing world.

The TNS Omnibus survey of 9,600 UK adults, including face-to-face interviews, found that 11.4 per cent of adults attend church at least once a month, equivalent to 6.02 million UK adults attending church on a regular basis.

Regular churchgoers are defined as those attending church at least once a month in formal or more informal settings, including midweek services but not including special occasions such as weddings, baptisms and funerals.

Monthly church attendance is high in Greater London at 16.3 per cent, low in England overall and Wales at 10.9 per cent, higher in Scotland at 13.3 per cent and even higher in Northern Ireland at 20.4 per cent, or one in five of the population.

Nearly a third of regular church goers attended Church of England services and a similar proportion Roman Catholic, with ten per cent attending a Pentecostal church.

Regular churchgoing is significantly higher among women than men and among those of AB social grade, the survey found. Churchgoing is also more of a habit for older generations, with 22 per cent of those aged over 75 going regularly, compared to just nine per cent of those aged 16 to 34.

Among the 6.02 million regular monthly churchgoers, the survey found, a core of 4.01 million, or 7.6 per cent, attend church at least once a week. A further 10.1 per cent of UK adults go less than once a month but at least once a year. More than 8 per cent belong to a religion other than Christianity.

Bekah Legg, of Compassion UK, said: "These figures are incredibly encouraging. We believe that the church is the hope of the world. These churches are catalysts for change in their community and it is reassuring and exciting to know that the UK church is in a position to play that role in this country too. Six million adults, plus their children, together as church, have the power to change not just their community, but nations.

"We see this happening every day. As individuals and churches work together to support the church in the developing world, we see genuine transformation. So far, just nine per cent of Christians sponsor a child. Our vision is to help the UK church, the 91 per cent who don't sponsor yet, connect with a child on the other side of the world and release them from poverty."