| Popis: |
Two key features of religious belonging are investigated, saliency of religion (self-identification as a religious person) and religious affiliation. The former, evidenced in sample surveys, is explored from five angles: religiosity (binary questions), religiosity (non-binary questions), spirituality versus religiosity, importance of religion, and difference made by religion. All point towards decline. Sample surveys are also a major source for religious affiliation, but results are extremely sensitive to variant question wording. In particular, asking whether a respondent belongs to any religion (which has increasingly become the dominant form) minimizes the numbers professing some affiliation and maximizes those self-reporting as having no religion. By contrast, the official Annual Population Survey and decennial census in England and Wales simply ask ‘What is your religion?’ This presumptive terminology generates higher levels of affiliation, especially by Christians. Either way, however, there has been an exponential growth in religious nones, notably since the millennium. |
