More churches than small pubs

United Kingdom | No one knows if there is a correlation, but there are now more churches than small pubs in the UK. Pubs, which employ fewer than ten people, were down to 23,000 in 2018, from 39,000 in 2001.

This compares with 40,300 buildings used as churches according to the National Churches Trust.

The Church Times, a weekly, reported on 2 May 2019 that although some Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Methodist church buildings have closed in recent years, this loss has been more than outweighed by the growth of new Evangelical and Pentecostal church congregations.

No doubt, pubs are closing at an alarming rate of one every 12 hours, CAMRA says. Between July and December 2018 alone, 378 pubs shuttered permanently in England, Scotland and Wales, representing more than 14 closures per week. For the full year, the figure is 854 pubs.

If you include all pubs large and small, there were 40,683 pubs in England, 2,901 in Wales and 3,612 in Scotland at the end of 2018, according to CAMRA.