ON PURE numbers, some observers might think Christianity has not done too badly overall with a drop of about 8,000 people between the 2001 and 2011 census.

As we report today, in 2001 about 81,000 people said they were Christians, with this dropping to 72,924 last year.

The Christian churches are facing dwindling numbers, after all, so anything other than a decrease would have been unexpected.

But, as with all stats, there’s more to be uncovered if you dig deeper.

When you take into consideration that the city’s population has increased, the figures begin to paint a truer picture.

In 2001 about 60 per cent of the city said they were Christian. Last year that was 48 per cent – less than half the population.

There will be several factors to that. We are not trying to say that large numbers of people have abandoned these faiths.

The Muslim population has risen significantly proportionately from about four per cent to almost seven per cent for instance.

But it is now interesting to those on the outside of the Christian faith and something for those within to ponder more deeply that for the first time less than half this city’s population no longer link themselves to those churches.