The religion question is voluntary; across England and Wales, 94.0% (56.0 million) of usual residents answered the question in 2021, an increase from 92.9% (52.1 million) in 2011. In Bury, 5% of residents (9,597 people) did not answer the religion question in the 2021 census, a reduction from 6% who did not answer in 2011.

For the first time in a census of England and Wales, less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people) described themselves as “Christian”, a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% (33.3 million) in 2011; despite this decrease, “Christian” remained the most common response to the religion question. This is reflected in Bury, as 48.8% of the population (94,671 people) described themselves as “Christian”, a reduction from 62.7% (116,036) in 2011.

“No religion” was the second most common response in Bury, increasing by nearly 11% from 18.6% in 2011 to 29.4% in 2021. This is consistent with the trend seen nationally, as 37.2% (22.2 million) of people in England and Wales said they have “no religion”, an increase of 12% from 25.2% (14.1 million) in 2011.

The graph below shows the percentages of people by religion in Bury for 2021 compared to 2011:

The map below illustrates the percentage of people who identified their religion as “Christian” by MSOA in Bury according to the 2021 census:

The table below shows the percentage of each religion for the 26 MSOA’s in Bury (with the total of 100% for each MSOA):

The highest proportion of residents who reported their religion as “Christian” live in Elton Vale MSOA closely followed by Summerseat, and the lowest proportion of those who identify as “Christian” live in Sedgley Park, where 46.4% of residents identified as “Jewish”.

The Bury ward with the highest percentage of people reporting their religion as Christian is North Manor at 64.2%.  Sedgley (Bury) is the lowest at 23.4%.