The religious affiliation of members of the Scottish Parliament

In this post I present findings from the declaration of religious affiliation made by MSPs as part of personal information recorded on the Scottish Parliament website.

MSP’s appear to be noticeably less religious and less Christian than the general Scottish population – and they are less likely to be in the Church of Scotland.

Almost two in three of them (65%) declared no religious affiliation – compared to just in one of three (37%) of the Scottish population in the 2011 census.

They are half as likely as the general population to declare that they are members of the Church of Scotland. 15% said they were, compared to 32% of the population in the 2011 census.

MSP’s are far less likely to declare themselves as Christians – only 30% of them do so – compared to 54% of the population in the 2011 census.

The low number of declared Roman Catholics

The number of declared Roman Catholics is surprisingly low – with only 3 members out of the 125 for which the information source is available reporting that they are of this denomination. The population proportion is 16%. Perhaps some feel an inhibition in declaring their denomination in public records or choose to register as ‘Christian’.

Conservatives are the most religious and Christian party

11 of 15 Conservatives declare the Christian faith (73%) compared to 54% of the Scottish population - more than double the Parliamentary percentage of 30. 7 of the 15 Conservatives were Church of Scotland members.

Labour the least religious party

Labour is the least religious large party with 27 out of 38 (71%) not declaring a religion – slightly more than the 68% figure for the SNP whose profile mirrored that of the Parliament as a whole.

Four out of the five Liberal Democrats did not declare a religion.

A lone atheist?

One MSP declared himself an atheist but social survey evidence suggests that 19% of the population share this view and some MSPs may not feel the need to reveal similar views in a religious declaration.