London: Britain may no longer be a Christian country by 2030 as the number of non-believers is set to overtake the number of Christians, a media report said.
Christianity is losing more than half a million believers every year, while the count of atheists and agnostics is going up by almost 750,000 annually, the Daily Mail reported.
Research by the House of Commons Library found that while Christianity has declined, other religions have seen sharp increases.
In the last six years, the number of Muslims has surged by 37 percent to 2.6 million; Hindus by 43 percent and Buddhists by 74 percent. But the number of Sikhs and Jewish believers fell slightly, according to the Mail Friday.
Last week a group of MPs and peers - Christians in Parliament - claimed public policy was promoting "unacceptable" discrimination against Christians.
On Friday, the group's chairman, former Tory justice minister Gary Streeter, warned that believers were having their faith "steamrollered" by a "secular and hostile state".
It found that in 2010 there were around 41.1 million Christians in Britain - down 7.6 percent over the past six years.
There were around 13.4 million non-believers, up 49 percent over the same period.
IANS
First Published: Saturday, March 03, 2012, 21:41