Age & Sex Distribution
Muslim population is youngest
Religion: by age, April 2001, GB
Muslims have the youngest age profile of all the religious groups in Great Britain. About a third of Muslims (34 per cent) were under 16 years of age in 2001, as were a quarter (25 per cent) of Sikhs and a fifth (21 per cent) of Hindus. There are very few older people in these groups – less than one in ten were aged 65 years or over. The Jewish and Christian groups have the oldest age profiles with one in five aged 65 years or over (22 per cent and 19 per cent respectively).
These differing age profiles reflect the ethnic make-up of the different religious groups. Christian and Jewish communities contain predominantly White people who have lived in the UK all their lives or who migrated here before the Second World War, and have an older age structure. Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities are predominantly of South Asian ethnic origin and have a younger age profile, reflecting later immigration and larger family sizes with more children.
Muslims are the only religious group in which men outnumber women – 52 per cent compared with 48 per cent. This reflects the gender structure of Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups, in which men slightly outnumber women due to their immigration history. In all other religious groups there are either the same proportions of men and women or slightly more women than men, reflecting the fact that women live longer than men in the general population. However, men formed the majority of the 'no religion' group, 56 per cent.
There is greater gender variation among the other smaller religious groups in England and Wales. In 2001, women made up more than two thirds of people who gave their religion as Spiritualism (68 per cent) or Wicca (67 per cent). Women also formed just over half of the Pagan and Bahà'ì groups – 54 per cent and 53 per cent respectively. Conversely, among Rastafarians and Zoroastrians, men were in the majority (70 per cent and 54 per cent respectively).
Percentage with no religion: by age and sex, April 2001, GB
Younger people are more likely than older people not to belong to any religion, reflecting the trend towards secularisation. Among 16 to 34 year olds in Great Britain, almost a quarter (23 per cent) said that they had no religion compared with less than 5 per cent of people aged 65 or over.
Sources: Census, April 2001, Office for National Statistics Census, April 2001, General Register Office for Scotland
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