LONDON, UK - New research from the National Centre for Social Research paints a bleak picture of declining faith in Britain.

The survey of more than 4,000 people across Britain found that the number of people describing themselves as Christian has dropped in the last 25 years from 66 per cent to 50 per cent. NatCen said the drop was due largely to the steady decline in numbers belonging to the Church of England, with only 23 per cent of those surveyed describing themselves as Anglican today in comparison to 40 per cent of the population in 1983.

NatCen also conducted the survey in the US, where it found ties to religious faith to be far stronger than in Britain. Sixty-one per cent of Americans said they had “no doubt” that God exists, compared with just 17 per cent in Britain, while 37 per cent of Britons described themselves as atheist or agnostic, compared with only eight per cent in the US.