Prayer is a vital part of life for nearly half of UK adults, with 20 million saying they pray and one in three adults believing that God is watching over them, according to a report published last Sunday by Christian relief & development agency Tearfund.
With around 40 days left until Christmas, the results fly in the face of the commonly held view that faith is increasingly irrelevant in today's secular society.
The new findings on prayer follow a survey earlier this year by Tearfund which revealed that 7.6 million adults attend church at least once a month.
Staggeringly, London is confirmed as one of the least secular parts of the UK with 73 per cent of adults praying and one in five attending church at least once a month.
Publication of the latest Tearfund report, Prayer in the UK, marks the start of Tearfund's Global Poverty Prayer Week, November 12-18, during which thousands of people around the UK and in other countries are joining together in prayer about issues of poverty and injustice.
The Prayer in the UK report provides an authoritative insight into prayer, revealing that prayer is perhaps more common than many believe.
