Workers' Liberty

Fifty-two per cent of people in Britain, asked in a YouGov poll in February 2007, oppose the growth of faith schools in this country. Only ten per cent positively approve.

The opposition to faith schools extends across all age groups and income levels. It is higher among men than among women, and younger people are somewhat more likely to say that they neither approve or disapprove, or don't know.

But religion itself is markedly shunned by the young. Another poll, recently, showed 40% of teenagers positively disbelieving in God.

The YouGov poll shows only 17 to 18% of people aged from 18 to 50 believe in a personal God. Only about the same number pray at all often.

Only 11% attend a church, mosque, or temple even as often as once a month. That percentage is no higher for the over-50s, though more of those older people believe in a personal God (27%) and pray (30%).

43% of 18 to 50 year olds think that the influence of religion in Britain is harmful (and nearly 60% of them regard that influence as "very significant" or "fairly significant"). Only 14% think the influence of religion positively beneficial (again, older people are more pro-religion, 21% of them seeing a beneficial influence).

On all measures women are markedly more religious, and more pro-religion, than men. For example, 64% of men disapprove of the growth of faith schools, but only 41% of women.

Unfortunately, the survey's results are not broken down into sufficient detail to let us see whether this gender difference is constant through age groups, or is decreasing - as one might reasonably hope it is - among younger women.

Only 16% of those asked - 22% of men, 10% of women - describe themselves flatly as atheists. There are a lot of "don't knows", and 26% chose the vague response, "I believe in 'something', but I'm not sure what".

Nevertheless, the figures are clear enough to show that the Government's drive for faith schools - unopposed by the other big parties - represents an elite choice rather than a deference to mass opinion. The Establishment assumption that religion is, in general, "a good thing", a force for ethical improvement, is not shared by most people.

The overall figures do not, of course, mean that impressionistic observations of a growth of religiosity among young people of Muslim background are necessarily false. But they may give cause to question whether that growth of religiosity is really as great as often claimed.