Colour-coded London map uses one paint dot for every person of faith

Stunning new maps show the religious demographics of London, Manchester, Leicestershire, Tyne and Wear and West Yorkshire.

The maps, that look like oil paintings, were created by cartographer Ben Flanagan and show each dot represented by a single person.

They show the scope of religions across the country’s metropolitan areas, and how different religions have spread in parts of England.

The maps that looks like oil paintings were created by coder Ben Flanagan and shows each dot represented by a single person

Mr Flanagan created the maps for for Esri UK said the maps don’t just look interesting, but can help make data more tangible.

On his website, he wrote: ‘Historically, London has been predominantly Christian. This is evident as the map is a sea of blue.

‘Islam, London’s second largest religion and represented here as turquoise, seems to have a greater following north of the River Thames.

‘The map also reveals large Jewish, Hindu and Sikh communities – all found to the north and west of the capital.

‘Dot density maps are really effective at normalising data by geographic area. This is because places with fewer people fade away, while densely populated areas become more prominent.

‘These visualisations help to reveal hidden patterns, or in this case, communities. They not only look interesting, but help to make the data more meaningful. ‘

The map of London is mostly blue, to represent the capital’s mostly Christian population, but it shows how religion clusters in spots across the city – and the country as a whole.

In the northwest is a pink area around Harrow, where the population is more than 25 per cent Hindu.

And in from Harrow, is a yellow area with specs of green to show Barnet, where London’s highest number of Buddist live, around 4500 as well as more than 54,000 Jewish people, about 15 percent of the borough.

Multicultural London: Where do different religions live across the capital?
Area	All people	Christian	%	Buddhist	%	Hindu	%	Jewish	%	Muslim	%	Sikh	%	Other religion	%	No religion	%
Barking and Dagenham	185911	104101	56.00	842	0.45	4464	2.40	425	0.23	25520	13.73	2952	1.59	533	0.29	35106	18.88
Barnet	356386	146866	41.21	4521	1.27	21924	6.15	54084	15.18	36744	10.31	1269	0.36	3764	1.06	57297	16.08
Bexley	231997	144093	62.11	1377	0.59	3547	1.53	234	0.10	5645	2.43	4156	1.79	724	0.31	55995	24.14
Brent	311215	129080	41.48	4300	1.38	55449	17.82	4357	1.40	58036	18.65	1709	0.55	3768	1.21	33054	10.62
Bromley	309392	187656	60.65	1580	0.51	4987	1.61	957	0.31	7841	2.53	736	0.24	1138	0.37	80303	25.96
Camden	220338	84737	38.46	3155	1.43	3592	1.63	11226	5.10	30385	13.79	519	0.24	1423	0.65	64064	29.08
City of London	7375	3344	45.34	92	1.25	145	1.97	166	2.25	409	5.55	18	0.24	28	0.38	2522	34.20
Croydon	363378	205022	56.42	2381	0.66	21739	5.98	709	0.20	29513	8.12	1450	0.40	2153	0.59	72654	19.99
Ealing	338449	148055	43.75	4228	1.25	28915	8.54	1131	0.33	53198	15.72	26778	7.91	1987	0.59	50848	15.02
Enfield	312466	167417	53.58	1824	0.58	10927	3.50	4412	1.41	52141	16.69	1078	0.34	1950	0.62	48522	15.53
Greenwich	254557	134632	52.89	4223	1.66	9087	3.57	492	0.19	17349	6.82	3490	1.37	1013	0.40	65034	25.55
Hackney	246270	95131	38.63	3075	1.25	1577	0.64	15477	6.28	34727	14.10	1872	0.76	1311	0.53	69454	28.20
Hammersmith and Fulham	182493	98808	54.14	2060	1.13	2097	1.15	1161	0.64	18242	10.00	442	0.24	857	0.47	43487	23.83
Haringey	254926	114659	44.98	2829	1.11	4539	1.78	7643	3.00	36130	14.17	808	0.32	1303	0.51	64202	25.18
Harrow	239056	89181	37.31	2700	1.13	60407	25.27	10538	4.41	29881	12.50	2752	1.15	5945	2.49	22871	9.57
Havering	237232	155597	65.59	760	0.32	2963	1.25	1159	0.49	4829	2.04	1928	0.81	648	0.27	53549	22.57
Hillingdon	273936	134813	49.21	2386	0.87	22033	8.04	1753	0.64	29065	10.61	18230	6.65	1669	0.61	46492	16.97
Hounslow	253957	106660	42.00	3617	1.42	26261	10.34	651	0.26	35666	14.04	22749	8.96	1540	0.61	40351	15.89
Islington	206125	90107	43.71	2299	1.12	2307	1.12	2090	1.01	21470	10.42	626	0.30	1052	0.51	67974	32.98
Kensington and Chelsea	158649	86005	54.21	2447	1.54	1386	0.87	3320	2.09	15812	9.97	263	0.17	778	0.49	32669	20.59
Kingston upon Thames	160060	84684	52.91	1771	1.11	7502	4.69	775	0.48	9474	5.92	1236	0.77	802	0.50	41183	25.73
Lambeth	303086	160944	53.10	2963	0.98	3119	1.03	1134	0.37	21500	7.09	440	0.15	1682	0.55	84803	27.98
Lewisham	275885	145588	52.77	3664	1.33	6562	2.38	643	0.23	17759	6.44	531	0.19	1478	0.54	75155	27.24
Merton	199693	111993	56.08	1884	0.94	12203	6.11	791	0.40	16262	8.14	498	0.25	810	0.41	41231	20.65
Newham	307984	123119	39.98	2446	0.79	26962	8.75	342	0.11	98456	31.97	6421	2.08	1090	0.35	29373	9.54
Redbridge	278970	102755	36.83	1840	0.66	31699	11.36	10213	3.66	64999	23.30	17377	6.23	1348	0.48	30691	11.00
Richmond upon Thames	186990	103319	55.25	1577	0.84	3051	1.63	1409	0.75	6128	3.28	1581	0.85	890	0.48	53195	28.45
Southwark	288283	151462	52.54	3884	1.35	3668	1.27	1006	0.35	24551	8.52	653	0.23	1350	0.47	77098	26.74
Sutton	190146	111086	58.42	1368	0.72	8038	4.23	486	0.26	7726	4.06	325	0.17	796	0.42	46817	24.62
Tower Hamlets	254096	75087	29.55	2994	1.18	4717	1.86	1396	0.55	96157	37.84	912	0.36	908	0.36	54363	21.39
Waltham Forest	258249	124939	48.38	1987	0.77	5917	2.29	1259	0.49	56541	21.89	1209	0.47	993	0.38	46462	17.99
Wandsworth	306995	162590	52.96	2574	0.84	6496	2.12	1617	0.53	24746	8.06	832	0.27	1283	0.42	82740	26.95
Westminster	219396	97877	44.61	3194	1.46	4178	1.90	7237	3.30	40073	18.27	496	0.23	1280	0.58	44542	20.30

Tower Hamlets in east London is shown as a light green hue as it has the city’s highest population of Muslims, slightly less than 100 thousand, about 38 percent.

While Tower Hamlets has the highest percentage of Muslims, larger neighbouring Newham has the highest number.

The data is taken from the 2011 Census and also shows the City of London has the highest percentage of people with ‘no religion’ just over a third, and the London Borough of Havering, on the eastern outskirts of the city has the highest density of Christians, 66 per cent.

The map of Leicestershire shows its namesake city with splodges of pink, orange and green in the middle

The colour-coded map show one-dot per person

Throughout England and Wales Christianity was the largest religion with 33.2 million people (59.3 per cent of the population). Muslims were the next largest religious group with 2.7 million people (4.8 per cent of the population).

Other maps were created of Leicestershire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and Tyne and Wear.

The map of Leicestershire shows its namesake city with splodges of pink, orange and green in the middle.

Leicester is 18.63 per cent Muslim, 15.19 per cent Hindu and 4.38 per cent Sikh.

The artist, who said he was inspired by powder paint to create the images hopes the multivariate dot density map will help to reveal patterns in the data that would have otherwise been hidden.

Map showing the religious demographic across Greater Manchester

Map show the religious density in Leeds, Wakefield, Halifax and Bradford

Map shows the spread of religion in Tyneside including Newcastle and Sunderland

Multicultural Britain: What does the 2011 Census tell us about where faith is spread in England and Wales?
	All people	Christian	%	Buddhist	%	Hindu	%	Jewish	%	Muslim	%	Sikh	%	Other religion	%
East	5846965	3488063	59.66	22273	0.38	54010	0.92	34830	0.60	148341	2.54	18213	0.31	24981	0.43
East Midlands	4533222	2666172	58.81	12672	0.28	89723	1.98	4254	0.09	140649	3.10	44335	0.98	17918	0.40
London	8173941	3981408	48.71	82842	1.01	412458	5.05	150293	1.84	1026975	12.56	126335	1.55	48294	0.59
North East	2596886	1753334	67.52	6316	0.24	7772	0.30	4503	0.17	46764	1.80	5964	0.23	6668	0.26
North West	7052177	4742860	67.25	20695	0.29	38259	0.54	30417	0.43	356458	5.05	8857	0.13	19166	0.27
South East	8634750	5160128	59.76	43946	0.51	92499	1.07	17761	0.21	201651	2.34	54941	0.64	39672	0.46
South West	5288935	3194066	60.39	19730	0.37	16324	0.31	6365	0.12	51228	0.97	5892	0.11	29279	0.55
Wales	3063456	1763299	57.56	9117	0.30	10434	0.34	2064	0.07	45950	1.50	2962	0.10	12705	0.41
West Midlands	5601847	3373450	60.22	16649	0.30	72247	1.29	4621	0.08	376152	6.71	133681	2.39	25654	0.46
Yorkshire and The Humber	5283733	3143819	59.50	14319	0.27	24074	0.46	9929	0.19	326050	6.17	22179	0.42	16517	0.31

In London as a whole, just under half of the capital is Christian, the least in the whole country. Across England and Wales, the north east is the most Christian area, with more than 67 per cent identifying with the faith.

London has the highest percentage of Buddhists (1.01 per cent), Hindus (5.05 per cent), Jews (1.84 per cent), and Muslims (12.56 per cent). Whereas the west Midlands has the most Sikhs (2.39 per cent).

In the northeast, there is less than one in 400 people are Sikh (0.25 per cent). In the same area, there are less than 8000 Hindus, who make up just 0.3 per cent of the population.

There are only 2000 Jewish people in Wales, making up the smallest minority in the country, just 0.07 percent, there are also less than 3000 Sikhs on the west on the Severn bridge.

The southwest sees England and Wales’ smallest proportion of Muslims, at less than one percent.

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