While the proportion of Britons who say they believe in God declined by close to one per cent on average each year between 1991 and 2008, a YouGov poll for The Times found it has fallen by four per cent since February last year.
The newspaper concludes from the statistics: "Election surprises, conflict, a refugee crisis and terrorism: the past 18 months seem to have had it all - and this appears significantly to have dented the public's faith in a god."
Conflict in Iraq and Syria; a referendum vote for Britain to leave to European Union; the election of Donald Trump to become US President; terror attacks in Brussels, Nice and Berlin; and a number of high-profile celebrity deaths are among events to make the headlines this year.
According to the survey of 1,600 people, the proportion professioning a belief in God fell from 32 per cent in February 2015 to 28 per cent today, while the share saying they don't believe in any god or higher spiritual power rose from 33 per cent to 38 per cent.
Figures released in October revealed the number of people passing through Church of England (CofE) doors on Sundays has fallen by 125,000 during the last decade, from around 875,000 to 750,000.
The CofE stats also show that 2.5 million people attended Anglican church services last Christmas, the highest number since 2011.