There was a big initiative by many Pagan groups and organisations – at the time leading to the Census 2011 – to encourage Pagans, Druids, Shamans, Wiccans, Witches to put their religion down as such. This was so that we can get a realistic numbers. I did a blog a while back with early results. Well, here’s the latest publication from Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Adding the numbers for Pagan (56,620 ), Wicca (11,766), Druid (4,189), Heathen (1,958), Witchcraft (1,276), Shamanism (650), – which I can easily pick out as being `Pagan’ ..amounts to a total of 76,459. Of course others may also add Thelemite, Mysticism, Reconstructionist, Occult, New Age, Traditional African Religion, animism, shintoism too, and reach a number around 82,000+. [This is still only less than 0.4% of the declared population, with Christianity being 59.3%, and with Muslims being 4.8%).
Of course, not everyone would have actually declared their `Pagan’ religion on the National Census, so the real number is likely to be higher than these.
It is amusing to note that `Jedi Knight’ is the 7th largest religion in England & Wales..according to 2011 Census!!! By looking at the numbers for each, I can say that Paganism is the 8th largest… Here’s the list (I compiled): 1.Christianity, 2. Muslim, 3. Hindu, 4. Sikh, 5.Jewish, 6.Buddhist, 7.Jedi Knight, 8.Pagan, 9. Spiritualist. Interestingly, if I look at the `belief’ of Jedi, it is about `The Force’ – an energy that is around and within everything which the Jedi `work’..and this is akin to the spirit of things that Pagans believe and work with (`Magic’).
A personal note on Satanism vs Horned Gods : Satanism is NOT ever considered to be a Pagan Religion. It stems from Christianity (as Satan is a Christian biblical figure). The Horned Gods such as Hern, Cernunnos, Pan are much older nature-based deities thought of as Pagan gods..(and wrongly thought of as `evil, devil, satan’ by ill-educated people who do not do their own research and just quote other people’s propaganda!
-Mani Navasothy
This infographic illustrates data on religion from the 2011 Census to provide a picture of the various faiths across England and Wales.
QuantumPhoenix 