Broadcaster and columnist Jeremy Clarkson has issued a stark warning about the future of Christianity, suggesting that a sharp decline in birth rates across the Western world could pose an existential threat to the faith’s long-term survival.
Writing in his column for The Sun, the 65-year-old reflected on newly published global fertility figures and voiced concern about what he called the “practically universal collapse of fertility in the Christian world”.
“Women with wombs need to get busy,” he wrote, referencing research that suggests a birth rate of 2.7 children per woman is required to prevent population decline.
However, he noted, the global average now stands at just 1.44 - with Britain only slightly higher at 1.54, and other Western nations, such as Canada and Italy, falling as low as 1.33 and 1.21 respectively.
Clarkson contrasted these figures with much higher fertility rates in Muslim-majority countries.
“It might be the case in the Western world,” he said, “but in Muslim countries, each woman has on average 3.1 kids.”
“So it’s not the human race that’s in danger,” he concluded. “Just the Christian bit of it.”
While many experts attribute declining birth rates in high-income countries to social and economic development, Clarkson appears more focused on the cultural and religious implications. His comments reflect a broader concern that as Western societies embrace secularism, the traditions, values, and faith that once defined them are quietly fading.
The presenter, known for his role in Top Gear and Clarkson’s Farm, has previously criticised what he sees as the erosion of traditional British identity. He has called for a return to “old British values” in response to what he describes as a national atmosphere of “diversity and campness”.
In a separate column earlier this year, Clarkson accused the UK government of attempting to “carpet bomb our farmland with new towns for immigrants and net zero wind farms”, claiming that such policies amount to the “ethnic cleansing” of rural Britain.
While his language is often provocative, Clarkson’s latest remarks raise questions that many in the Christian community have long been asking: what does the future hold for the faith in an increasingly secular West, and what responsibility do Christian families and communities bear in shaping that future?
Jeremy Clarkson owns The Farmer’s Dog, a pub in Burford, Oxfordshire, and also operates the bar and restaurant at his Diddly Squat Farm, where his own Hawkstone beer is served. He is the father of three grown-up children.
