A belief in miracles is still prevalent among 21st Century Britons with one in six people convinced that they or someone they know personally has experienced one, it found.

Meanwhile angels and “spirits” also form part of a significant number of British people’s belief system.

The research found that even people with no religious affiliation still subscribe to the idea that unexplained forces affect people’s thoughts and actions.

The report commissioned by the television production company CTVC and the religious think-tank Theos included interviews with more than 2,000 people by the pollster ComRes.

Overall almost eight out of 10 people polled agreed with the statement that “there are things in life that we simply cannot explain through science or any other means.”

Six out of 10 non-religious people also agreed with that statement.

A majority of people (59 per cent) said they believed in the existence of some kind of “spiritual being” while three in 10 defined God as a “universal life force”.

Only a quarter said they actively believed in angels, a smaller proportion than said they had faith in the existence of “spirits”.

John Bingham | Read the full story on telegraph.co.uk