The Intergenerational Transmission of Islam in England and Wales: Evidence from the Citizenship Survey

Abstract

If secularization is increasing over time, this should be observable in patterns of religiosity across the generations. The Home Office Citizenship Survey (of adults in England and Wales) and its accompanying Young People’s Survey provide a relatively rare example of individual-level and intergenerational British data on religious transmission, with indications of religious affiliation or practice across three generations. Secondary analysis was conducted on the 2003 data, looking at religious transmission in four groups: Christians, Muslims, those from non-Christian non-Muslim religions and those with no religion. Associations between religious transmission and a range of social factors are presented, with these including ethnicity, gender, country of birth and socio-economic characteristics. The data suggest a complex pattern of religious transmission over the three generations and a higher transmission of Islam than any of the other religious categories. There is, therefore, a focus on Islam in the presentation and discussion of the data analysis.