Churchgoing in Glasgow, 1836–2016: The Statistical Record

Abstract

Historiographical debate about religious change and secularisation in Scotland often fails to take a sufficiently long-term perspective and to subject the sources used to critical scrutiny. In this article, one possible metric of secularisation (churchgoing rates) is investigated for Scotland’s largest city (Glasgow), by a statistical examination of fourteen church censuses between 1836 and 2016. Emphasis is placed on the varying methodologies of the censuses and the limitations to their comparability. Churchgoing in the city has declined, relative to population, since the later nineteenth century, initially among Protestants. The net scale of decrease was mitigated after the Second World War by the Catholic majority in the pews, but even Catholic attendance has shrunk absolutely in recent decades.