Fewer people identify as Christian and more people are non-religious in Allerdale than a decade ago, new census figures show.
Humanists UK ran campaigns in the lead up to the censuses in 2011 and 2021 encouraging non-religious people to select no religion. The organisation said the recent figures should be a wake-up call for reconsidering the role religion has in society.
Office for National Statistics data from the 2021 census shows 60 per cent of people in Allerdale selected Christianity as their religion, down from 75 per cent in the last survey a decade before.
About 33 per cent selected no religion last year, a leap from 17 per cent in 2011.
Of these, 26 people said they were agnostic, while 27 selected atheism.
The area follows trends across England and Wales where 46 per cent of the population described themselves as Christian in the recent census, down from 59 per cent a decade earlier. It is the first time the proportion has dropped below half.
And the percentage of people saying they had no religion jumped from around a quarter (25 per cent) in 2011 to over a third (37 per cent) last year.
Nationally, there were increases in the proportion of people describing themselves as Muslim, with 6.5 per cent selecting the religion last year, up from 4.9 per cent in the previous census. More people also identified as Hindu, increasing from 1.5 per cent in 2011 to 1.7 per cent in 2021.
The figures show more people in Allerdale identify as Muslim, with 231 selecting the religion last year, up from 192 in 2011.
Additionally, 69 residents said they were Hindu in the survey, up from 39 10 years ago.
There were 217 Buddhists and 36 residents who selected Judaism.
Of the other options, 100 said they were pagans and five said they practice heathenism.
