Abstract
Religion and belief remain a key focus of sociological inquiry, given that 76% of the world’s population in 2020 identified with a religion and 24% were religiously unaffiliated (Hackett et al. Citation2025). Globalisation and increasing human mobilities have contributed to the rise of religious plurality across multiple countries, particularly in the Global North. Beaman (Citation2022) notes that many Western liberal democracies are experiencing significant religious change, marked by declining institutional religious engagement, decreasing levels – but diversifying forms – of Christianity, rising numbers of those identifying as non-religious, and growing non-Christian religious affiliations. The UK, which features to varying degrees in over half of the articles in this Special Issue, acts as a good example of these wider trends. According to the 2021 Census of England and Wales, the share of people identifying as Christian declined from 59% in 2011 to 46% in 2021. Over the same period, the proportion of the population reporting no religion increased from 25% to 37%, while those identifying with other faiths grew from 8% to 11% (ONS 2022).