Northern Ireland religion: Evangelical Alliance surprised to find that one in two people are 'practising Christians' - including Protestants and Catholics

The Evangelical Alliance (EA), which commissioned a survey of over 1,000 people by polling company Savanta, said even they were surprised by how high the figure is.

It noted that the 2021 census found that 80% of the NI population identified as Christian, compared to 46% of England and Wales in the same census.

However, its new research attempts to go beyond the labels people applied to themselves, this time by asking how many people are “practising” their Christian faith.

The resulting report – ‘Northern Ireland: Who are the Good News People?’ – concludes that 50% of people in NI define themselves as “practising Christians”, with 35% praying, 23% going to church and 13% reading the Bible every week.

The report also found that 38% of “practising” Catholics in Northern Ireland also consider themselves to be evangelical Christians.

Therefore, it concludes, 21%, or some 400,000 people in NI, would describe themselves as evangelicals.

David Smyth, head of EA in NI, said: “We always suspected that the Christian faith continued to play an important role in life here and this research confirms high levels of religious identification and practice. The findings in this report have challenged, surprised and encouraged us.

“However, we are aware that evangelicals are often perceived negatively in the media. Our research confirms this, but also affirms that when people know us personally their responses are much more positive.

“Evangelicals show up at church but also in their local communities and care deeply about wider society.

“Evangelical Christians are just like our neighbours in many respects but are understandably distinctive in many ways too.

“Our hope is that this report helps those in government and media understand us and religiosity in Northern Ireland better.”

Paddy Monaghan, of the Evangelical Catholic Initiative (ECI), very much welcomed that 38% of practising Catholics identify as evangelical.

“Many Catholic respondents may understand the word ‘evangelical’ to mean that ‘they have received the gospel, accepted Jesus as personal Lord and Saviour and manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit,’ he said.

“They would also have a love and respect for Scripture as the Word of God.”

Much of this would have happened in the Catholic community through the various “renewal movements”, he added.

The findings were based on a poll of over 1,000 members of the public carried out by Savanta last year, plus a survey by EA of over 2,000 practising Christians in NI.

The report says that the term ‘evangelical’ comes from the Greek word ‘evangelion’ which is usually translated as ‘gospel’ or ‘good news’.

It argues that evangelicals want to be defined by, “the good news of Jesus ... in the form of [his] life, death and resurrection”.

This would, it says, contrast to other people “who were simply religious or defined by tradition”.

The research found that the general population see evangelicals in the media as “religious”, “extreme”, “loud”.

In contrast, it concluded, people who know evangelicals personally largely describe them as “friendly”, “honest” and “kind”.

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