Nearly 6 out of 10 Scots are now religiously unaffiliated, according to new survey

The number of religiously unaffiliated Scots has reached a record high, with nearly six out of 10 describing themselves as having no religion.

A survey conducted by independent research body ScotCen found that 58 percent of respondents said they had no religion at all, compared to 40 percent in 1999.

The Scottish Attitudes Survey indicated that the sharpest decline was in The Church of Scotland, where only 18 percent said they belong to the Kirk, down from 35 percent in 1999, according to the BBC.

The proportion of Roman Catholics (10 percent), other Christian denominations (11 percent), and non-Christian faiths (two percent) have remained relatively stable in Scotland over the same period.

"The decline in religious identity in Scotland has been most keenly felt by the Kirk as fewer and fewer people choose to describe themselves as Church of Scotland by default. As each generation coming through is consistently less religious than the last, it is hard to imagine this trend coming to a halt in the near future," said ScotCen researcher Ian Montagu.

"However, if the Kirk is able to push through liberalising measures such as allowing ministers to oversee same-sex marriage ceremonies, it is possible that its appeal may broaden somewhat to younger, more socially liberal Scots," he added.

The survey was based on interviews with 1,237 people conducted between July 2016 and December 2016.

The Reverend Norman Smith, the convener of the Church of Scotland's Mission and Discipleship Council, said that the findings of the study do not come as a surprise for the Church. He stated that the challenge for the Church is to find ways to "connect people's everyday life to faith."

Smith pointed to another study reported in the Daily Telegraph, which he says indicated that "Christianity continues to have an impact on people's lives."

The news agency recently reported that new figures have found that one in six young people are practicing Christians, while thousands convert to Christianity after visiting church buildings.

Meanwhile, the British Social Attitudes Survey, also conducted in 2016, revealed that British people, especially Christians, are becoming more accepting of same-sex marriage, abortion, pornography and sex before marriage.

The survey found that 64 percent of the U.K. public now say same-sex relationships are "not wrong at all," up from 57 percent in 2013, the year before gay marriage was legalized.

About three-quarters of British people now say sex before marriage is "not wrong at all," up from 42 percent when the question was first asked in 1983. Christians seemed to be following the national trend, with a majority now saying there is nothing wrong with sex between unmarried people.

Among Roman Catholics, whose church strongly opposes abortion, 61 percent said that a woman should be permitted to terminate her pregnancy if she does not want a child.