NSS: Prayer polling highlights absurdity of imposed worship in UK

The National Secular Society has said prayers imposed in schools, parliament and councils should be ended, after statistics revealed the United Kingdom has the lowest observance of daily prayer out of all countries surveyed.

Recent analysis by the Pew Research Center has revealed less than 10% of people in the UK pray every day – the lowest percentage out of 102 countries.

This is also considerably lower than the global median of 46%.

The same analysis also revealed people in the UK are among the least likely to say religion is very important, at less than 20%. Only Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Estonia and Japan have a smaller percentage of people who think religion is important.

The analysis used data collected between 2008 and 2023.

The figures are consistent with many other surveys indicating waning religiosity in the UK. The most recent censuses revealed nonreligious people to be the second largest religion or belief group in England, the largest group in Wales, and the majority in Scotland.

However, prayer is imposed in several aspects of public life in the UK.

All state schools in England and Wales are legally required to hold daily acts of 'broadly Christian' collective worship. Laws requiring acts of religious observance in schools also exist in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

An NSS-commissioned poll this year found 70% of senior school leaders in England disagree with the law.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly recommended the UK government repeal collective worship legislation, as it is incompatible with the right of children to freedom of religion or belief.

Prayers are also imposed in parliament. Sittings in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords begin with Anglican prayers. When parliament is busy, MPs and peers must attend prayers in order to reserve a seat.

Parliamentary prayers have been criticised by many MPs and peers. In July, Green MP Ellie Chowns said using prayers as a seat reservation system is "frankly rather ridiculous".

Similarly, many local councils across the UK also begin meetings with prayers. However, many have abandoned this practice after recognising their divisive and exclusionary nature. Last year, Newark and Sherwood District Council replaced prayers with a moment of contemplation in order to be "inclusive of, and truly representative of, all our communities".

NSS: Prayers in schools and parliament "nonsensical"

The NSS, which campaigns against collective worship laws, parliamentary prayers and council prayers, called for an end to imposed worship in public life in the wake of these figures.

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "Pew's analysis reveals the UK to be one of the least religiously observant countries in the world. It's clear that most Brits do not consider prayer to be an important daily activity.

"It's therefore nonsensical that daily prayer is legally required in all state schools, in addition to being imposed in parliament and many councils.

"This is not merely an anachronistic absurdity – it is an illiberal and unfair state of affairs which forces citizens from children to politicians to take part in enforced worship.

"Do we really want to be a country where most people who pray only do so because they are forced to?

"It's clearly time to end collective worship laws and prayers in parliament and councils."