A new study by Christian think tank Theos suggests that strongly defined forms of Christian nationalism remain a minority position in the UK, although many Brits are supportive of some link between Christianity and Britishness.
The preliminary findings, published by Theos researcher Nick Spencer, draw on fresh polling data examining how closely Britons connect Christianity with national identity and public life. It comes amid growing public discussion around religion, identity and national culture.
To explore the issue, researchers commissioned an online survey examining attitudes toward religion, immigration, ethnicity and national identity.
Researchers caution that the term ‘Christian nationalism’ itself remains highly contested and difficult to define, noting that it is often used inconsistently and sometimes pejoratively in political debate.
In the report, Spencer argues that Christian nationalism is best understood through the idea of “co-terminosity” - the belief that Christianity and national identity are closely intertwined or dependent on one another.
The study therefore focused heavily on whether respondents believed Christianity was essential to being “truly British”.
According to the polling, 17% of UK adults agreed with the statement that a person must be Christian to be genuinely British - 8% of that figure strongly agreed. Over half disagreed.
When participants were later asked to identify the single most important characteristic for being British from a wider list of options, only 1% selected being Christian.
The survey also tested attitudes toward Christian values and belonging.
Around 16% agreed - 7% of them strongly - that individuals who do not identify with Christian values “do not belong in Britain”, although most respondents rejected the statement and over 40% strongly disagreed with it.
Researchers said these figures suggest that more hardline expressions of Christian nationalism remain relatively limited in Britain, even while broader support exists for maintaining some official relationship between Christianity and national life.
The polling found significantly higher levels of support for statements linking Christianity to British institutions and public culture.
Two in five UK respondents (41%) agreed that British law “should be based on Christian values,” while 40% supported prioritising Christianity within religious education over other faiths.
Meanwhile, 37% said the government should formally describe “Britain as a Christian country”, including 22% who strongly supported that view.
Support was lower when it came to political leadership, with 26% agreeing that “it is important for the country’s leader to be Christian,” and just 14% expressing strong agreement.
The report stresses that holding such views should not automatically be classified as Christian nationalism, and that there is an important distinction between believing Christianity has historical or cultural significance in Britain, and believing Christian identity should determine who truly belongs to the nation.
The report also compares the findings with previous studies from organisations including Pew Research Center, Ipsos, the British Social Attitudes survey and Premier Christian News, which similarly found that while some Britons support a continued connection between Christianity and national identity, only a minority believe being Christian is essential to being truly British.
One of the clearest long-term trends identified in the analysis is a gradual decline in the proportion of Britons who believe Christianity is important to national identity.
British Social Attitudes data cited in the report found that the percentage of people who considered being Christian important to being “truly British” fell from 32% in 1995 to 19% in 2023.
Even so, Spencer cautions against drawing simplistic conclusions from the data, arguing that Christian nationalism is “a complex social, cultural, political and religious phenomenon” that exists in varying degrees rather than as a simple yes-or-no category. He also recognises a need for “taking care with numbers”, and the potential for “distorting” and even “exaggerating” the true proportion of Christian nationalists.
“Christian nationalism … is a slippery term, with lots of different definitions flying around,” he said.
“Many of those are highly pejorative, with ‘Christian nationalist’ being intended as much an insult as it is a description. The result is that very few who might legitimately fall into this category willingly use or own the description.”
The report concludes that only a very small proportion of the British population - perhaps around 1% - holds what researchers describe as the strongest forms of Christian nationalist belief.
A somewhat larger group, estimated between 7% and 15%, holds views more recognisably aligned with Christian nationalism, while a broader section of the public - between 15% and 25% of the population - supports a looser yet still formal relationship between Christianity and British public life while not seeing the two identities as essentially linked.
The research forms part of an ongoing project exploring the scale and character of Christian nationalism in Britain and across Europe. The questionnaire was conducted last month across six European countries - the UK, France, Germany, Romania, Poland and Hungary - using nationally representative samples of adults.
Theos said the findings remain provisional and will continue to be refined through further analysis and future research.
