65% of 12-19 year olds do not describe themselves as belonging to a religion

"65% of 12-19 year olds do not describe themselves as belonging to a religion according to 2004 Department for Education & Skills (DfES) Report 564"  


source: British Humanist Association


I quote from above report "Young People in Britain: The Attitudes and Experiences of 12 to 19 Year Olds", by Alison Park, Miranda Phillips and Mark Johnson from the National Centre for Social Research.



2.2.3 Ethnicity, religion and national identity

A third of young people described themselves as belonging to a religion, with the majority, just over a quarter, belonging to a Christian religion. Two thirds did not regard themselves as belonging to any religion, an increase of ten percentage points in as many years (from 55 per cent in 1994 to 65 per cent in 2003).

As the next table shows, young people were markedly more likely than adults not to see themselves as belonging to a religion.

It should be noted that the overall figure for adults disguises considerable age related differences; among 18 to 24 year olds, 60 per cent said they did not belong to a religion (as did 56 per cent of 25 to 34 year olds).

These findings largely reflect generational differences in religious attachment, with younger generations being both less likely than their predecessors to define themselves as religious and maintaining this distinctiveness as they themselves get older.

Consequently, the proportion of people in Britain who see themselves as belonging to a religious group will continue to fall over time (Park, 2000). Indeed, between 1994 and 2003, the proportion of adults with no religious affiliation has grown from 39 to 43 per cent. 

4.1 Social participation

We also asked young people whether they regarded themselves as belonging to any particular religion, and if so, how often they attended services or meetings, apart from special occasions such as weddings, funerals or baptisms. As described in Section 2.2.3, around two-thirds of young people did not associate themselves with any religion – a very similar proportion to that found in the previous Young People’s Social Attitudes survey in 1998. Just ten per cent attended once a week or more, with a further six per cent going at least once a month. It is apparent that young people are less likely to attend religious activities than any of the other leisure activities mentioned earlier such as cinema, sport, and music or drama.

When we compare young people’s religious activity with the religion of the adult respondent in the household, there is a clear association. This is not surprising given that many young people will be brought up with their parents’ religious beliefs or activities, particularly while still living at home. Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of young people in households where the adult respondent said they did not belong to a particular religion also said they had no religion, compared with just over a third (37 per cent) of young people living in a household with an adult who had a religious affiliation.

BHA Religious Education Campaign

Religious Education

We believe that children and teenagers should know about non-religious beliefs, values and philosophies. We are currently running a Campaign Action giving voice to the idea that RE should be the study of both religious and non-religious beliefs and also that humanists should have the same right as religious people to be full members of the local committees determining RE syllabuses. You can take action right now.

The BHA campaigns for reform of Religious Education (RE) because we believe that all pupils in all types of school should have the opportunity to consider philosophical and fundamental questions, and that in a pluralist society we should learn about each other’s beliefs, including humanist ones.

We campaign for a reformed subject of Belief and Values Education, or Philosophy, or (as in Scotland) Religious and Moral Education/Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies, which would be characterised by inclusiveness, impartiality, objectivity, fairness, balance and relevance.

This subject would be a national entitlement for all pupils and not, as currently, drawn up on a local basis by each individual local authority.

Humanists have always worried that too close an identification of morality with the six world religions usually studied in RE might lead to those students who do not share religious beliefs thinking that morality also has little to do with them (65% of 12-19 year olds do not describe themselves as belonging to a religion according to 2004 DfES Research Report 564).

The BHA has been involved in RE for almost fifty years. The usual contemporary justifications for RE in the school curriculum – its contribution to social cohesion and mutual understanding, its presentation of a range of answers to questions of meaning and purpose, its role in the search for personal identity and values – can best be served by including humanist perspectives and non-religious students. See also Issues in RE for humanist pupils.

For more information about what humanists would like to see in RE, see Education Policy – summary and A Better Way Forward (PDF).

SACREs (Standing Advisory Councils for RE) are the LEA-convened bodies in England and Wales that manage RE locally. Over 80 SACREs (out of around 170) include humanists, but usually only as co-opted members. Where they are included, humanists can provide for non-religious students in RE. BHA is lobbying for humanists to be accepted as full members of all SACREs on human rights grounds, as we believe that they are currently discriminated against on grounds of belief. See SACREs and ASCs.

What are we doing?

The BHA works through cooperation with others involved in RE and the persuasiveness of our arguments. We have a good working relationship with relevant officials in the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). We regularly respond to relevant Government consultations, we send briefings and write regularly to MPs, peers and the DCSF, and we are well respected and active members of many RE organisations, including the Religious Education Council and the Association of RE Advisers, Inspectors and Consultants. The BHA is regularly included in national consultations and debates, for example those held by the DfES and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and our Director of Education currently serves on the Board of the Religious Education Council and the National Council for Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education.

As well as helping to keep reform of religious education high on the Government’s agenda, we have successfully assisted measurable reforms in religious education. We are currently involved in the Government's steering group for the reform of RE guidance which, although not the reform of primary legislation we aim at, will certainly correct some of the worst elements of the current system.

In November 2007, BHA-commissioned research was published, which, following the recommendations in the National Framework, examined the inclusion of "secular worldviews such as Humanism" in school RE. The research found that 62 of the 80 local authorities had included secular worldviews in some form, but the general increase in inclusion was incremental and generally at a very low level. Read Humanism for Agreed Syllabuses in Religious Education (PDF).

In 2004, after we participated on the steering committee for the National Framework for RE, Humanism was included as a recommended study for all pupils. See Humanism in the National Framework for BHA guidance and advice about where Humanism is appropriate and relevant to the skills and concepts outlined in the Framework.

In September 2008 we became a founding member of Accord  – a new campaigning coalition for reform of faith schools,  bringing together religious and non-religious supporters of change as well as teachers unions and high profile supporters.

What can you do?

We believe that children and teenagers should know about non-religious beliefs, values and philosophies. We are currently running a Campaign Action giving voice to the idea that RE should be the study of both religious and non-religious beliefs and also that humanists should have the same right as religious people to be full members of the local committees determining RE syllabuses. You can take action right now.

You can become a member of your local SACRE and help to ensure that children and young people in your area get a balanced and inclusive RE. There may well be a vacancy in you local SACRE. If you are interested in finding out more, you can email us.

You can support the BHA by becoming a member. That helps in itself, and you can help even more by supporting our campaigns in the ways suggested above. But campaigns also cost money – quite a lot of money – and we also need financial support.  You can make a donation to the BHA.

Co-opted Today onto Dorset SACRE

Today the clerk of Dorset SACRE co-opted me as a Humanist Observer, replacing Richard Scutt who has retired from this role after 5 years. "Glad to welcome you on board".

BHA Response to Consultation on draft ‘Religious Education in English schools: non-statutory guidance 2009’

my comments on non-statutory guidelines published January 2010 are in red.
A: Introduction

• References of ‘religions’ in primary legislation should become ‘religions and beliefs’
• the majority of references to 'religion' do not include 'and beliefs'.
• local syllabuses are not the best way of delivering good RE.
• they give rise to patchy quality, uneven provision, and a postcode lottery. 
• they prevent progression for pupils who may move from local authority to local authority. 
• no comment
• We are in favour of a national entitlement to a subject called ‘Religions and Beliefs’
• which deals with religious and non-religious beliefs in a balanced manner 
• that takes the place of local determination.
• no comments
• We welcome that the new guidance
• generally uses the language of ‘religions and beliefs’, which includes Humanism 
• religion(s) and / or belief(s) are mentioned more than 30 times
• restates again the government’s view that RE should entail
• not a confessional induction into any one religion or belief, nor religion generally, 
• but a genuinely educational study of religious and non-religious beliefs about questions of importance, 
• in the process of which young people will develop their own responses to these questions. 
• not included

B: Humanism and Humanists – concerns with present guidance

• The content of the curriculum 
• the inclusion of Humanism in RE remains vague and patchy. 
• ditto
• Although the word Humanism at least receives a mention in many syllabuses, the required teaching usually remains at a minimal level. . 
• The new guidance should explicitly state 
• that the subject matter for RE is the principal religions and beliefs represented in Great Britain
• not stated
• that membership of the relevant group or committee on SACREs and ASCs respectively should be representative of the principal religious and belief traditions in the area. 
• not stated
• what is meant by ‘belief’ in this context
• We set out below further details of how this should be done.
• not stated
• Eligibility of Humanists for full membership of SACREs and ASCs 
• the new guidance recommends co-opted, non-voting membership of SACREs for humanists and no membership at all of Agreed Syllabus Conferences 
• since government is recommending that Humanism be included in the syllabus, a prohibition on humanists being involved in deciding what will be said about them and their beliefs (when religious representatives are included) is a gross inequality.
• When Circular 1/94 was issued, 
• most humanists who had been full members of existing SACREs were demoted to non-voting, co-opted membership, if they were retained at all
• Only two SACREs: Oxford and Westminster, in defiance of the guidance, chose to keep their humanists as full members of SACRE group A and ASC committee A. 
• Since 1994, some co-opted humanists have been chairs and vice chairs of SACREs. 
• In SACREs of good will, the position of humanists has not been as bad in practice as circular 1/94 mandated in theory. 
• The experience of other humanists, however, (and this is the case for most) has been that circular 1/94 makes SACREs and ASCs feel unable to appoint humanists as members of SACREs and ASCs, 
• and gives cover to those who, for reasons of prejudice, do not wish to do so. 
• Crucially, even where humanists have been able to be co-opted members of SACREs, they have still been prevented from being members of ASCs and so actually involved (as their religious colleagues are) in the writing of syllabuses. 
• On other SACREs humanists have been made to feel unwelcome and present only on sufferance. 
• We are concerned that this situation will not be resolved by the draft guidance and that by stopping short of recommending full membership of SACREs and ASCs for humanists, it may actually reverse the progress made in some areas. 
• Oxford and Westminster were the only SACREs that chose to retain their humanists as full members in 1994, 
• at least seven further SACREs who have restored full group/committee A membership to humanists since 1998
•  Brent, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Northumberland, Harrow, Ealing and Camden. 
• In the case of Brent, Portsmouth, and Suffolk this was explicitly in light of the Human Rights Act and Equality Act 2006. 
• The new guidance should state explicitly that 
• representatives of non-religious beliefs (worldviews or lifestances) such as Humanism are equally eligible with those of religions for membership of the group or committee of SACREs and ASCs, 
• not stated
• so giving humanists the right to be full members alongside the religious representatives.
• The law 
• the extension of the syllabus to include Humanism and of the membership of SACREs and ASCs to include humanists is what the law demands. 
• The present draft guidance fails to fulfil the DCSF’s obligations under the Human Rights Act sections 3 and 6 and the Equality Act 2006 section 52. 
• references to ‘religions’ in the present law on RE should be read as references to ‘religions or beliefs’ in the new guidance. 
• some mentions of 'religions or beliefs'
• ‘principal religions’ must be read as ‘principal religions or beliefs’ so that Humanism is made very clearly a wholly legitimate worldview for study
• not stated
• references to membership of SACREs and ASCs, ‘religions’ must be read as ‘religions or beliefs’, giving humanists the right to be full members alongside the religious representatives.
• not stated

C: Comments on the draft guidance

to follow in a later post

Consultation on New Guidance for Religious Education in England: Take Action!

Read: Religious education in English schools: Non‑statutory guidance 2009

What is the issue?

On 30th April, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) issued new draft guidance on the teaching of Religious Education (RE) in English schools for public consultation, which ended on 24th July.

The guidance is intended to replace that issued in 1994 (Circular 1/94) which was widely believed, even at the time, to represent very poor advice on RE. The BHA was represented on the steering group that helped to produce the new draft, and we welcome the fact that, in many ways, it is an advance on the previous guidance, but it fails to address our two principal concerns in RE:

• that RE should be the study of both religious and non-religious beliefs;
• that humanists should have the same right to be full members of the local committees writing and overseeing RE syllabuses as religious people have.

What do we want?

• We want the government to use the Human Rights Act to make it explicit that references to ‘religion’ in the present law on RE should be read as references to ‘religion or belief’. 

• This would mean that non-religious philosophies such as Humanism would be included by right in the subject, rather than just be recommendation as present. 

• In particular, we want the references to the content of RE as being about ‘principal religions’ to be read as ‘principal religions or beliefs’ 

• and the eligibility for full membership of Standing Advisory Councils for RE (SACREs – the local committees that oversee RE) and Agreed Syllabus Conferences (ASCs – the local committees that set the RE syllabus) as a representatives of ‘religions’ to be read as ‘religions or beliefs’, giving humanists the explicit right to be full members alongside the religious representatives.

• The phrase ‘religion or belief’ is taken from the language of the Human Rights Act and it includes non-religious beliefs such as Humanism. 

The phrase ‘religion or belief’ is already used in the government’s national framework for RE (2004) and in the RE section of the secondary curriculum (2007) as well as in the proposed new primary curriculum (2009). In those places, it is made clear that it includes Humanism.

• It is very important that this should be the case in the new guidance, and that it should be made clear that this is the interpretation that should be given to the law on RE in light of the Human Rights Act, 

which forbids discrimination on grounds of religion or belief by public authorities and in section 3 requires existing legislation to be 'read and given effect in a way which is compatible with the Convention rights'.

The BHA's own Director of Education and Public Affairs, Andrew Copson, has recently given a recorded interview about the BHA's position on RE to Teachers TV, an organisation which supports the professional development of teachers and others working in schools.

What can you do?

	Although the public consultation on the proposed new RE guidance has now closed, there is still scope to petition the government. It is not too late to email your MP, using the BHA’s easy online facility and urge him or her to make your views known to the government and support changing the guidance.
	You can email your local councillor and ask that they get your council to support the changes to the RE guidance we are looking for and then make its view known to the government. You can also make a direct request to the councillor who holds the education portfolio. They are often known as the Portfolio Holder for Children & Young People or Children’s Services – your council website or general inquires line should provide you with their details.
	If you are a teacher, you could explore the possibility of your school contacting the Department for Children, Schools and Families urging the changes we are looking for.
	If you are a teacher of RE, or otherwise involved in RE as a professional you can contact the National Association of Teachers of RE or Association of RE Inspectors Advisers and Consultants (AREIAC) and urge them to contact the government supporting the changes we are seeking.
	If you are a member of a SACRE, whether as a humanist or not, you can urge your SACRE or local authority to contact the government asking that they support the changes we are seeking. You could contact your local SACRE even if you are not involved, to find out what position they and your local authority are taking on these issues. There is a partial list of SACREs online.
	If you are a member of a political party, you can write to the education contact or spokesperson of your party to urge them to support the changes we are seeking. For Labour, this is Rt Hon. Ed Balls MP,  for Conservatives this is Michael Gove MP, for Liberal Democrats this is David Laws MP.

Please copy any submissions you make or correspondence you enter into on this subject to Paul Pettinger at the BHA by email or by post to British Humanist Association, 1 Gower Street, London WC1E 6HD.

Related documents

• BHA Response to REG Consultation (24 Jul 2009, PDF 229 Kb)

Why are Humanists Co-Opted onto SACRE?

Why are Humanists Co-Opted onto SACRE? Its because Humanists aren't religious. Humanists don't have any voting rights on SACRE. Nor can Humanists attend an Agreed Syllabus Conference (ASC).

In Religious Education and Collective Worship guidance Circular number 1/94 (published January 2004) paragraph 104 states that:-

• "The inclusion of representatives of belief systems such as humanism, which do not amount to a religion or religious denomination, on committee A of an agreed syllabus conference or group A of a SACRE would be contrary to the legal provisions referred to at paragraph 103.

Paragraph 103 states there are 5 groups that constitute SACRE:-

• 5 Groups
• A: Christian denominations and other religions and religious denominations
• B: Church of England
• C: Associations representing teachers
• D: Local education authority
• E: Governing bodies of grant-maintained schools
• A SACRE may also include co-opted members, who are not members of any of the five groups. There is no provision for an agreed syllabus conference to include co-opted members.

The "Religious education in English schools: Non.statutory guidance 2009" - guidance supersedes the guidance given on RE in Circular 1/94. It does not constitute an authoritative legal interpretation of the provisions of education legislation or other enactments and regulations; that is exclusively a matter for the courts.

How many adults in Dorset have No religion?

The 2001 Census for Religion percentages and numbers for Dorset County (excludes Bournemouth & Poole) are:

E&W avg: England & Wales Average

Dorset 2001 Census

• 390,980 adults
• 304,500 Christian (77.9%)
• 53,727 (13.7%) No religion. 
• 28,899 (7.4%) Religion not stated
• 3854 (1%) Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh or Other. 
• For every 6 Christian there is one 1 adult with No religion.  (see Chart 1)
• For every 13 adults with No religion there is 1 with a non-Christian religion ie. Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh or Other. (see Chart 2)