The changing face of UK evangelicalism

"Who do you actually represent?" It’s a question I am often asked in my role at the Evangelical Alliance. Usually it is followed by another: "How many evangelicals are there in the UK?" Then, "What actually makes someone an evangelical?"

For years, those questions did not have straightforward answers. We pointed to our 30,000 personal members, and to our more than 3,000 church members. We might mention charity Tearfund's research from 2007, which estimated there were around two million evangelicals in the UK. It was the best answer that we had, but it was almost 20 years old.

As the Evangelical Alliance reached its 180th anniversary, we decided it was time to revisit those questions properly. Working with research consultancy Whitestone Insight, we commissioned one of the largest studies of evangelical identity, belief and practice ever carried out in the UK. Nearly 8,500 adults were surveyed, giving us a much clearer, and encouraging, picture of evangelical Christianity today.