Question

To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what percentage of parishes formed part of a multi-parish benefice in every year since 2000.

Data is held centrally for the years 2011 to 2025 only. Obtaining equivalent data for the period 2000 to 2010 would require extensive archival research and incur disproportionate cost.

The table below shows the proportion of parishes forming part of a multi-parish benefice over this period. Multi-parish benefices most commonly consist of two parishes, while a small minority of benefices may consist of more than five parishes

Rural parishes usually have lower residential populations than urban parishes, and rural areas are more likely to have multi-parish benefices and benefices consisting of more than five parishes. This tends to reflect the local communities' desire to maintain historic parish identities and, where possible, keep parish churches open for worship.

Data for 2014 is not available because the creation of the Diocese of Leeds (formerly the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales) on 1 April 2014 which involved substantial parish and diocesan boundary changes throughout the year, making annual figures for that year unavailable on a comparable basis.