Can We Still Call Britain A 'Christian' Country?

Lord Ashcroft, pictured here at a previous Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. Reuters

Britain will soon lose its right to be described as a "Christian" country, latest polling shows.

Christianity is on schedule soon to lose its place as the majority faith in Britain, a new poll by the Conservative peer Lord Aschcroft reveals. 

Ashcroft, former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, polled more than 8000 voters in his annual August survey, including a question about religious affiliation.

The number of people identifying as Christian has fallen from 56 per cent just five years ago in 2011 to 51.4 per cent this year.

Those identifying with a non-Christian religion also fell, from 6.4 to 6.1 per cent.

By comparison, those with no religion, known as "nones", rose from 35.8 to 40.5 per cent.

The results are reported by Counting Religion in Britain.

The religious nones are already in the majority among the under-35s and among supporters of green and nationalist political parties.

Another YouGov survey found 47 per cent of Britons stating they had no religious beliefs. Just 13 per cent in this survey said religion was very important to them and 16 per cent, somewhat important.

A separate survey by YouGov found eight per cent of people believe a "religious apocalypse" could bring human life to an end. Among these, nearly one-fifth of UKIP voters believed human extinction on earth would be caused by religion. 

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