Wealthy people are more likely to go to church

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People who live in affluent areas are nearly twice as likely to go to church as those in deprived communities, a report published today suggests.

About one in 10 people in the 20 richest areas of Britain regularly attend Sunday service while in the lowest-income category only 5.9 per cent attended church, a geographical analysis of congregations by Christian Research said.

Seven of the prosperous areas were in Surrey, the only county in the past 10 years to see a rise in the number of Church of England worshippers.

Dr Peter Brierley, Christian Research executive director, said: "In some of the most prosperous areas there is a mobile population with people moving in. Those people want to become part of the community and the church allows them to do that." He said the most successful churches had a "friendly congregation" and tended to cater for young people.

Some of the smallest congregations were in deprived former coal mining areas in South Wales and northern England. Dr Brierley said that in some of the poorer areas people had lost their faith because of their circumstances.

Christian Research based its findings on its Church Attendance Survey in which it received a 33 per cent response to questionnaires sent to 38,000 churches in Britain.

The Church of England said the results failed to take account of people attending Sunday schools, or services held in midweek or at home.

A spokesman said lower attendances at churches in former mining areas such as Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire were partly because big ethnic-minority communities attended mosques and synagogues, which were not surveyed. The report, based on a survey of leaders from a cross-denominational range of churches, showed that between 1989 and 1998 congregations had risen at 21 per cent of churches. There was no change in 14 per cent of churches, while 63 per cent reported a fall in numbers, contributing to a net reduction in church attendances of one million over the 10-year period.

The report also showed that, per head of the population, nearly double the amount of people in Scotland (13.4 per cent) attended Sunday services than worshippers in England and Wales (both 7.4 per cent).

The number of women ministers increased from 8.3 per cent in 1995 to 10.4 per cent in 2000. Of these, 56 per cent were in the Salvation Army; 22 per cent in the United Reformed Church; 15 per cent in the Church of Scotland and 12 per cent in Anglican churches.

In the past two decades attendances at Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have fallen by about 30 per cent, according to official figures. But since the 11 September attacks there has been an increase in the number of churchgoers seeking "moral guidance".

* A cathedral at the centre of the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in Britain is to close because of a lack of funds and a dwindling congregation. Good Shepherd Cathedral in Ayr can hold more than 750 people but usually attracts only 100 parishioners on Sundays.