“Churches seeing the largest proportion of practising Christians are those that hold to evangelical beliefs more confidently”

Following the publication of survey data suggesting that evangelical Christians in the UK are more numerous and younger than previously thought, Evangelical Focus has asked one of the people behind the ‘Understanding UK Evangelicals’ report about other implications of the findings.

Danny Webster is Head of Advocacy at the Evangelical Alliance UK, which commissioned the company Whitestone to survey more than 8,000 people in spring 2026 to provide an up-to-date picture of the number of evangelicals in the UK, their age and their ethnic background.

You can read the main findings in this article published four days ago.

Webster, who told us that a second report with further findings will be published in a few months, answered questions from Evangelical Focus.

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Question. The report shows that there is a very high proportion of evangelicals compared to the total number of practising Christians. To what extent can this be attributed to the planting of new evangelical churches and their growth, and to what extent this points to a decline in active members within other Christian denominations in the United Kingdom (Catholicism, non-Evangelical Anglicanism, etc.)?

Answer. The research shows that 45% of UK adults identify as a Christian, but less than a sixth of these meet the criteria of being a practising Christian – which is regularly attending church, praying and reading the Bible.

Over the past few decades, the overall number of people in the United Kingdom identifying as Christian has decreased, and is likely to continue to decline in the coming years, but the number of people who are practising Christians is trending slightly upwards – and now we know that two thirds of these are evangelicals. The historic denominations, particularly the Anglican church, are more likely to have larger groups of non-practising Christians affiliated with them.

“The overall number of people in the UK identifying as Christian has decreased but people who are practising Christians is trending slightly upwards”

A. The simplest answer is that the research doesn’t tell us – we can see that nearly a third of them are from ethnic minority backgrounds, and the fact that younger adults are more likely to be evangelical than older adults suggests that many of those young adults are not following their parents but have their own evangelical identity and beliefs.

Q. The 7.9 per cent of evangelicals in your study also includes Catholic or Orthodox ‘evangelicals’, because they agree with the beliefs set out in Bebbington’s definition of evangelical beliefs. If only evangelicals in Protestant churches were counted, the figure would be 3.8 per cent – half that. Does it not confuse the reader when 19 per cent of believers who are actively committed to the Catholic Church and its doctrines  are defined as ‘evangelicals’ in belief and identification?

“The investment and attention given to children’s discipleship and young people over the past few decades is bearing fruit today”

If we excluded these groups and only included Protestant denominations in the group of broad evangelicals, this would make up 6.2% of the UK population. The tighter definition of 3.8% of the UK population as classic evangelicals includes only those who are Protestant, identify as evangelical and strongly agree with all four Bebbington belief statements.

Q. The fact that 4 in 10 Evangelicals are under 35 points to enormous future potential amongst Christians who say they believe in the Bible and in Jesus. Is this a sign that Sunday schools and youth groups have known how to work effectively and make an impact in the UK over the last decade?

A. The most interesting aspect of the finding that young adults are more likely to be evangelicals than older age groups is that this is probably not just a result of their parent’s evangelical influence – as not all the parents of these young adults would be counted as evangelicals. It is interesting that the investment and attention given to children’s discipleship and young people over the past few decades is bearing fruit in the lives of people in the UK today.

“We are seeing frequent opportunities to influence decision makers and speak up with confidence about what we believe”

A. Because this is the first time we have done a survey of this nature – and the only previous estimate of the evangelical population of the UK did not have any of the level of detail we now have, it is very hard to draw conclusions about what has changed and why.

However, the large minority within evangelicals from ethnic minorities reflects what we have seen in churches over recent years. I don’t think growth is only coming from churches with diaspora congregations, but it clearly is a significant source of growth. What this research does suggest is that the denominations and churches which see the largest proportion of practising Christians are those that hold to evangelical beliefs more confidently.

Q. From your experience at the EAUK of visiting many churches across the country, how satisfied are you with the collaboration of the 70 per cent of white evangelical churchgoers with the 30 per cent of believers from other ethnic backgrounds? Have UK evangelicals succeeded in bringing together people from different backgrounds in a balanced way within their local churches?

A. There is work to do to ensure that we build unity among evangelicals across all sorts of divides, and that definitely includes more work to ensure ethnic and intercultural diversity is source of unity and not of division. This is both within churches and between churches.

There are many churches that model this diversity well, but there is continued work to ensure relationships between churches and leaders are strong and directed to collaboration in mission together.

Q. Now in its 180th year, the EAUK continues to seek to represent this movement of Christians who believe in the Bible, in Jesus and in mission. What do you see as the main challenge and the main opportunity for your work as you look towards 2030?

A. There are great opportunities to speak up with confidence to make Jesus known, but also challenges as we do that. There is greater openness to the place of Christianity in public life, but also the challenge to ensure that is not co-opting for political purposes.

There are political challenges in an uncertain world and context of never-ending crises, but we are also seeing frequent opportunities to influence decision makers and speak up with confidence about what we believe and what matters most.