Briefing paper 1: Religion or belief

This Equality and Human Rights Commission (the Commission) briefing paper seeks to present within a single, short, document the best available recent statistical data in Britain on a range of issues relating to religion or belief. These include religious affiliation, religious practice and attendance, discrimination, and gender and church leadership positions. It does so to provide the background context for equalities work in this area both by the Commission and by others; as such, it seeks to complement the much more detailed information provided by the British Religion in Numbers (BRIN) online data resource (funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme) which readers are encouraged to consult.1

​This report briefing paper seeks to present within a single, short, document the best available recent statistical data in Britain on a range of issues relating to religion or belief.