Over the past 10 years, the number of Christians in England and Wales has decreased from 37.3 to 33.2 million people. This number also includes about 1.2 million immigrants, primarily Catholics from Poland, Italy, and Lithuania. Meanwhile, the ranks of Muslims during the same period have grown from 1.5 to 2.6 million, of which immigrants accounted for approximately 600 thousand people. A similar picture is observed in Scotland, where the count of believers followed a slightly different principle and therefore was not included in the overall statistics. Only Northern Ireland shows stability, where the ratio of religious communities has not changed over the last 10 years.
Among British Muslims, half are under 25 years old, while a quarter of Christians are over 65. The average age of a Muslim is 25, a Christian is 50. Therefore, as experts claim, just one generation change is enough for the religions to swap places. Unless the country faces a new wave of emigration from Christian countries, but under current economic conditions this is unlikely. On the contrary, a significant number of Poles are already returning home.
Professor of Demography at Oxford University David Coleman predicts the most significant cultural and political changes in British society since the Norman conquests in the 10th century: 'The ethnic transformation behind the current trends will lead to large, sudden, and irreversible changes in society, unlike anything seen at least in the last thousand years.'
About two-thirds of British Muslims have Asian roots (about 1 million are from Pakistan or their descendants, 400 thousand from Bangladesh), the rest come from Africa and the Caribbean.
Anton NEVZLIN,
«Russkaya Germaniya».