United Kingdom: Women keep the faith as majority of men say they do not believe in God

Muslims have the strongest faith in modern Britain while only one in six who identify with Anglicanism or other mainstream protestant churches are convinced of the existence of God

Women are almost two thirds more likely than men to believe in God, a major study of attitudes among middle aged Britons has found.

Atheism and agnosticism are now the majority creed among the male population but almost two thirds of women believe in Heaven or an afterlife, according to the study which has been tracking 9,000 people now in their early 40s for more than 25 years.

The findings also suggest that Muslims have by far the strongest faith in modern Britain, with Christians from smaller evangelical churches the only group coming close to the same levels of certainty.

By contrast only one in six members of the Church of England or the other main protestant denominations say they believe without doubt in God.

Just a third of Roman Catholics in the study said the same compared to 88 per cent of Muslims and 71 per cent of those categorised as evangelical Christians. Keep reading

Another way to look at these findings is that due to their conservatism and their tendency to separate themselves into enclaves and to resist integration into the mainstream of British society large segments of the UK's Muslim population has not experienced the effects of secularism as has the Christian community.