A quiet town in Suffolk has been revealed as the UK's Satanist capital. Bungay and its surrounding villages have the highest proportion of people who identify as devil-worshippers.
Data from the 2021 census shows that 70 of the 8,500 people who live in the area claim to be Satanists. That works out at around one person in every 120, which is around 100 times the national average.
The news comes just weeks after it was revealed that an increasing amount of young people in Britain are turning to Satanism instead of traditional religions. It was also announced that Britain no longer contains a majority of Christians for the first time since records began.
Bungay's mayor Tony Dawes told the Daily Star: “I was very surprised to hear this. I have never come across a Satanist in the town to my knowledge.
“The churches in the town are very well supported. I am wondering if people with nothing better to do during lockdown decided to put down that they were Satanists.”
Some suggest there may be a link to a local legend of the devil taking the form of a black dog, known as Black Shuck. The creature is said to have terrorised the congregation of St Mary’s Church in the town in 1577.
Martin Evans, of the Friends of St Mary’s Church, said: “I have seen no evidence of Satanists at all. I can’t imagine why anyone would put that down in the census, but we do have a lot of jokers around here.”
The co-runner of the Global Order of Satan UK told the Sunday Telegraph that there had been a 200% increase in the group's membership in the last five years. Chaplain Leopold, 32, said: “This is particularly amongst younger people who don’t want to be identified as part of a prescriptive dogmatic religion and rather want to identify as their own self-beliefs and self-realisation – which is what Satanism offers."
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