Older people abandoning religion

Saga, the organisation for the over-50s, has carried out a large scale survey of its members and found that a quarter of them now call themselves atheists or agnostics. The poll of 15,500 people, carried out for the Daily Telegraph, showed that only one in four older Britons want the Church of England to remain established (most of them couldn’t care less one way or the other).

The majority of those polled worship of pray less frequently than they used to and many admit that their belief in God has evaporated as they got older. One in five said their religious beliefs were now weaker than earlier in their adult lives and 14 per cent said they now had more doubts about God’s existence.

Terry Sanderson, the president of the National Secular Society, said: “This is more bad news for the Church of England as even its most traditionally faithful demographic begins to desert it. It is also indicative of the way that society is moving generally. The CofE’s established status becomes more and more difficult to justify. If even older people, who are generally regarded as the backbone of the faith, think it is time for a change, then the Government ought to give some serious consideration to new constitutional arrangements that better reflect the reality of our society.”

9 January 2009