Easter Stats 2003-05

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Knowledge of the Easter Story

Church Attendance and Belief 2004

A Populus poll for The Times, suggests that a belief in Christianity and the Easter story runs far ahead of the reality of church attendance. As the Times leader reported ‘It is still part of the self-image of a majority of voters’.

Sixty-three per cent say that they think of Britain as a Christian country. There is a direct correlation between age and these perceptions. Fewer than half (48 per cent) of 18 to 24-year-olds take this view, compared with roughly three quarters of 55 to 64-year-olds (72 per cent) and of over-65s (75 per cent).

This ties in with the findings of the 2001 Census which showed that nearly seven out ten people in England and Wales identified themselves as white Christians.

Moreover, a similar proportion of black people and a half of those of mixed ethnic backgrounds also identified themselves as Christians.

Fewer than two in five (37 per cent) say that they will go to a church service at some point over Easter, and 61 per cent say that they will not go. Even so, these answers are almost certainly an exaggeration of probable church attendance (regularly fewer than one in ten on Sundays, though higher over Easter).

People aged between 18 and 24 are half as likely to say they will go to church as over-65s (23 to 50 per cent). However, more than half the public (55 per cent) say that they personally believe that the "Easter story that Jesus rose from the dead is true". Personal belief in the Resurrection rises from 39 per cent among 18 to 24-year-olds to 64 per cent among the over-65 age group.

Women are significantly more likely than men to say that they plan to go to church (42 against 33 per cent) and to believe in the Resurrection (60 against 48 per cent).

More than two thirds of the public (70 per cent) think that Muslims in Britain seem "to take their faith more seriously than Christians take theirs".

Populus interviewed 1,045 adults by telephone across the country between April 2 and 4.

The Times April 10, 2004

Parables and Miracles in RE

A recent survey by Exeter University which was sponsored by the Jerusalem Trust found that children are still learning some of the basics of Christianity at school, though there are significant gaps in their knowledge.

Of the 500 12 year olds surveyed:

• Only 6% were unsure whether Jesus existed at all. 
•  67% knew about the supernatural character of Christ’s birth 
•  Although more than half (54%) did not know that Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, 77% were aware that according to the gospels, Jesus was raised from the dead.
• 44% could name a specific biblical parable – the Good Samaritan being by far the best known. 
• Just over half were able to cite a miracle.

Terence Copley, professor of religious education at Exeter University, the principal author of the survey told Ecumenical News International “The common idea among Christian groups that schools are failing to deliver on religion is not borne out by this survey. Jesus, however, often comes across as just a good man in a secular, 21st-century sense.” He also said that one of the surprises of the survey was that children – even those from a faith background – were getting most of their religious education from school.

Quoted in Christian Herald, 18th January 2003

Easter Day Knowledge

Results from a 2004 UK survey by Internet polling company YouGov, commissioned by the Sky Box Office channel to promote its showing of Mel Gibson’s film ‘The Passion of the Christ’, showed that:

• Three-quarters knew that Jesus was Jewish
• 90% were aware that the resurrection was what had happened on Easter Day.

Reported in The Guardian 15 December 2004

Or not…

A different Reader’s Digest Magazine poll highlighted British lack of religious knowledge in general. Of 1,000 adults questioned:

• only 48 per cent of British individuals were able to cite the resurrection of Christ as the event behind Easter celebrations
•  42 per cent were unable to name Judas Iscariot as the man who betrayed Jesus.

Reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March 2005

Religious Significance & Children

More than one in three youngsters in Britain fail to recognise Easter as a religious festival, while, to the vast majority, it is time for chocolate and television. A survey of 1,000 seven to 16-year-olds found just 15% would be attending church during Easter with the number dropping to as low as nine in some parts of the country. Other results from the NOP survey - which was commissioned by Woolworth’s - show that going to church is a long way down the list of ways the young celebrate Easter.

• Despite declining church attendance, Easter is still seen as a time to spend with families.
• Less than three in 10, 28%, equate the giving of chocolate eggs with Jesus and 85% were unaware that eggs symbolise rebirth. 
• In Scotland, 66% said Easter was a religious festival, but 84% also said it was a time to eat chocolate and 86% a holiday from school. 
• 49% of youngsters in Scotland, the most of any region, said it was the start of spring. 
• The lack of knowledge about Easter is greatest in southern England with only 46% of children saying the holiday is a religious festival.

Reported in the Express 18th April 2003

Half Britain believes in the Resurrection: Poll confirms traditional view of Easter

Nearly half of the population believes that Christ rose from the dead, according to a survey. The findings challenge the widespread view that an increasing secular society sees Easter as little more than an opportunity to indulge a taste for chocolate – even though relatively few will go to church. More surprisingly, the figures suggest that belief in the Resurrection may be increasing.

A poll in 2001, by the Fortean Times newspaper, found that a third of people agreed with the Biblical account of the event, and a European Values study in 1990 put the figure at 32%.

A survey of 1,003 people carried out by Nunwood consulting, a market research company in April 2003 revealed:

• Almost half the respondents  47%, said they believed that Christ rose from the dead.
• More than a third, 36%, said they did not and 15% said that they did not know.
• The survey found that women are more devout than men, with 49% agreeing that Christ rose from the dead compared with 43% of men.
• The survey, carried out last week , also found that the vast majority correctly identified the religious significance of Easter.
• More than two thirds, 70%, said that Easter was inspired by Christ’s death and Resurrection.
• 10% said they thought Easter marked the ascension of Christ into Heaven, 4% thought that it marked the Last Supper and 3% Jesus’ birth.
• The best-informed group was aged between 45 and 54.

Sadly, there is a widening gap between people’s beliefs in the central tenets of Christianity and their churchgoing habits. There were just 1.13 million Easter Sunday communicants in Church of England parishes in 2001, less than two per cent of the population.

Reported in The Daily Telegraph, 14th April 2003 by Jonathan Petre

Chocolate-related Statistics

Chocolate & Gender

Women are responsible for two-thirds of all chocolate sales. They eat around 60% of their purchase and then share the rest. Men make 30% of purchases - but eat it all.

From Stats of life, Horizons, National Statistics, Issue no 27, December 2003. Quoted in Quadrant, The Christian Research Association publication, March 2004

Top Ten Eggs at Woolies in 2003

1. Cadbury’s Caramel egg. 
2. Kitkat egg. 
3. Cadbury’s Flake. 
4. Cadbury’s Crunchie. 
5. Mars. 
6. Cabury’s buttons. 
7. Smarties. 
8. Terry’s Chocolate Orange. 
9. Woolworth’s design your own.
10. Cadbury’s my egg.

Reported in The Sun, 15th May 2003

Cadbury Cashes In

• 2003 saw £350 million being spent on 80 million chocolate eggs. 
• Only Christmas is a more gluttonous time for those with a sweet tooth, who spend more that £3.8 billion pounds on chocolate a year. 
• One in two eggs consumed are made by Cadbury, representing about a tenth of its annual total chocolate sales. 
• About 500 million of Cadbury’s Crème Eggs, the company’s best-selling Easter line, are produced each year which, if piled on top of each other, would stand 10 times higher than Mount Everest. 
• Annual chocolate sales generate about a fifth of the fizzy drinks-to-chewing gum group’s £5.3 million revenue.

Reported in the Daily Telegraph, 21st April 2003