Why your parish church is not on it
The Church of England and the Church in Wales are not on this register, and never have been. An Anglican parish church does not apply for anything: it is authorised to marry by the Marriage Act itself. So there is no list of them to publish — not here, and not anywhere else. If you are looking for a Church of England church, the Church's own directory A Church Near You is the place to look.
Everything below is therefore the other religious buildings: chapels, mosques, synagogues, meeting houses, temples, gurdwaras and the churches of every other denomination, which do have to register and which are recorded by the General Register Office.
The numbers
21,843 buildings, and a much smaller number
- 29,323recorded as places of worship under the 1855 Act
- 21,843of those also registered to hold a marriage
- 1,443registered for a same-sex marriage — 6.6% of them
- 176registration districts across England and Wales
Registering for same-sex marriage is a separate, voluntary step that needs the consent of the building's governing authority, which is why the third figure is so much smaller than the second. Both are counted straight from the register; neither is estimated.
By denomination
Who the 21,843 belong to
| Denomination, as the register records it | Buildings |
|---|---|
| Methodist Church | 4,466 |
| Roman Catholics | 3,048 |
| Baptists | 1,838 |
| United Reformed Church | 1,114 |
| Christians Not Otherwise Designated | 823 |
| Jehovah`s Witnesses | 739 |
| Calvinistic Methodists | 714 |
| Salvation Army | 633 |
| Particular Baptists | 591 |
| Congregationalists | 511 |
| Assemblies of God | 447 |
| Independents | 439 |
| Spiritualists | 294 |
| Christian Brethren | 244 |
| Pentecostal | 241 |
| Muslims | 228 |
| Brethren | 225 |
| Sikhs | 195 |
| Latter Day Saints | 185 |
| Christians | 176 |
The twenty largest of many more. The wording is the register's own, not ours.
By area
Where they are
⚠️ These are registration districts, which are not the same shape as the council areas the rest of this site uses — a district can cover a whole county. Each one links to that area's venue page.