Richards Dawkins congratulates Wales on atheism growth

Evolutionary biologist Prof Richard Dawkins, the author of a number of best-selling books on biology and religion including the God Delusion, has welcomed census results showing a fall in the number of people in Wales saying they are religious.

He tells Felicity Evans on BBC Radio Wales that the figures are actually worse for Christianity than they appear.

He said a separate poll carried out in the same week commissioned by his organisation showed many people who said they checked the census box for Christianity did so to express the fact they felt they were good people and not necessarily religious.

The Church in Wales responded to the results by saying that Christianity was "no longer the default setting" for many people but the picture is complex.

Those stating that they were Muslim in Wales is 1.5%, up from 0.7% - in 2001, and there were also slight increases in the percentage of people who said they were Hindu or Buddhist, both up from 0.2% to 0.3%.

There was also a rise in people saying they had other faiths - from 0.2% to 0.4%

One third in Wales not religious