MOST people enjoy Christmas, but how many are Christian?

While Dorset still has more believers than the national average, new 2015 figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show a sharp rise in the number of people with no religion.

The statistics are based on a survey of religious belief conducted by parliamentary constituency.

On average, nationwide, 57 per cent of people identify as Christian.

The most Christian part of Dorset is North Dorset, where 65 per cent identify with the faith, and 63 per cent are Christian in Christchurch and in Mid-Dorset and North Poole.

In Bournemouth East and Bournemouth West 61 and 60 per cent of those surveyed called themselves Christians.

In Poole, 57 per cent identified with the faith - matching the average.

Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, Poole had the highest number of those who identify as having no religion at 41 per cent, up by 11 per cent from 2011. Meanwhile the number who identify as Christian has dropped by nine per cent in the same time.

In the same time period, the percentage of those identifying as Christian has dropped by five per cent in Mid Dorset and North Poole, four per cent in Christchurch, three per cent in North Dorset and Bournemouth West, and one per cent in Bournemouth East.

Meanwhile the number of people who say they have no religion has risen over the same period to 36 per cent in Bournemouth East, 35 per cent in Christchurch and 34 per cent in Bournemouth West, Mid Dorset and North Poole and North Dorset.

Data for other religions was gathered more sporadically.

Some four per cent of Bournemouth West respondents said they were Muslim, along with three per cent in Mid Dorset and North Poole and one per cent in Bournemouth East.

Also three per cent of those surveyed in both Bournemouth constituencies and Mid Dorset and North Poole said they belonged to 'other religions', such as Judaism, Hinduism and Sikhism. That figure was one per cent for Christchurch and North Dorset.

Christianity is in decline throughout the UK according to the ONS, which reported that the number of Christians in England, Scotland and Wales has dropped from 63 per cent in 2011.

However, the number of people who regularly attend church services is much smaller.

According to the Church of England, the country's established church, just 930,000 people in England attended an Anglican service once a week in 2016 - slightly less than two per cent of the total population.

Church attendance increases significantly around Christmas time, and 2.6 million people attended a Church of England service last Christmas, but this still represents just over five per cent of people in England.

The constituency with the highest proportion of Christians was South Holland and the Deepings in Lincolnshire - where 85 per cent of the population said they were Christian in 2015.

Leicester South had the lowest - just over one in four people said they were Christians, closely followed by Bethnal Green and Bow in East London. Both areas have Muslim populations which are much larger than average.