'Race', religion and ethnicity: religious observance in the West Midlands.

In the context of a funded survey, by Great Britain's Economic and Social Research Council, for the relationship between ethnicity, race and consumer satisfaction with local authority services in the West Midlands in England, data were collected on religious affiliation and observance along with other information on social characteristics, as of July 1, 1987. It is evident that there are fairly strong linkages between geographical or racial origin and religious affiliation, but that these linkages are not necessarily straightforward. Religious affiliation is at times a better predictor of behavior and perhaps attitude than the group membership predicated on the basis of physical attributes or visible signs. Given the significance of religion in cultural formation, friendship networks and identity, it should be regarded as incumbent upon those investigating correlates of group membership in the field of racial and ethnic relations to include consideration of the dimension of religious affiliation.