We’re a charity devoted to promoting humanist values, human rights, and equality, while providing services that support the non-religious in leading happier lives.
Our beginnings can be traced back to two separate foundations: the establishment of the Rationalist Press Association in 1885 and the formation of the Union of Ethical Societies in 1896.
Humanist societies: ethics without religion
The Union of Ethical Societies, later known as the British Humanist Association (BHA), was founded in 1896 when four major ethical societies in London merged under the leadership of Stanton Coit.
This movement provided a platform for social work and progressive campaigning outside the auspices of churches and other religious organisations, promoting an ethic of ‘deed not creed’. From its inception, the Ethical Union was highly egalitarian, with women holding key leadership positions, including its first president, Lady Elizabeth Swann, and Secretary Zona Vallance. Other prominent founders included Leslie Stephen, the Victorian critic and father of Virginia Woolf. From its inception, its members and patrons included some of the greatest thinkers, philosophers, and campaigners of the time – including writers E.M. Forster, Maureen Duffy, and Harold Pinter; leading philosophers like Bertrand Russell, Karl Popper, and Susan Stebbing; suffragist campaigner Lillie Boileau; scientists Julian Huxley and Francis Crick; and columnist Claire Rayner.
Throughout the 20th century, the BHA championed numerous progressive causes, such as women’s suffrage, reproductive rights, LGBT rights, and the abolition of the death penalty, while also pioneering humanist ceremonies to reflect a growing need for non-religious weddings, funerals, and baby-naming ceremonies. It also innovated new services for the non-religious during a time when they faced intense legal and social discrimination, including many services we now take for granted – including adoption agencies, housing associations, addiction support, and secular counselling services.
The RPA: free speech and challenging superstition
Founded in 1885 by Charles Watts, the Rationalist Press Association was a staunch advocate for free thought and rational inquiry during a time when such ideas were often met with hostility. Operating from Johnson’s Court near Fleet Street, the RPA published works that critiqued organized religion and promoted scientific and philosophical skepticism. Its ‘Thinker’s Library’ series sold cheap reprints of humanist, helping introduce generations of readers to great humanist thinkers like Charles Darwin and Bertrand Russell. Its flagship publication, the Literary Guide, became a crucial resource for freethinkers, and continues today as New Humanist magazine, a quarterly journal of arts and culture which features some of the best writers in British journalism. Much like the BHA, it enjoyed public support from some of the humanist world’s most influential entertainers, writers, and scientists, including Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein, who served on its advisory board and were some of the magazine’s most devoted readers.
Throughout the 1950s, the RPA and BHA explored a merger to consolidate their efforts, but concerns over the RPA’s charitable status ultimately halted the process. Nevertheless, the two charities continued to collaborate on various campaigns together until their eventual merger in 2025.
Humanists UK today
In 2017, with its membership growing rapidly on the back of profound social changes – most notably the growth of the non-religious population – the British Humanist Association rebranded as Humanists UK, reflecting its expanded focus and the growing confidence of its human rights work.
This decade saw significant achievements, including the establishment of the Non-Religious Pastoral Support Network in hospitals, prisons, and the armed forces, and growing demand for Humanists UK’s accredited celebrants, dialogue workers, and school visitors. Additionally, the charity added new strings to its bow, including a new service supporting people fleeing high-control religions, including non-religious asylum seekers. It celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2021 with the launch of its Humanist Heritage programme to preserve and promote the history of humanism in the UK.
After decades of working closely together, Humanists UK joined forces with the Rationalist Association (the parent body of the RPA) in 2025, emerging as a unified charity that today has over 150,000 members and supporters. It continues to publish New Humanist and as the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people, with a mandate to advance free thinking and promote humanism, Humanists UK’s support services continue to benefit over a million people every year, while its campaigns work to promote humanist thinking on ethical issues, advance human rights, and champion equal treatment for all.
Ways of supporting us
If you want to support us in our work, please do join or donate. We are dependent on charitable giving to continue our work.
Humanists UK is the operating name of the British Humanist Association. We are a charitable company (no. 228781), formed in 1896 and incorporated in 1928, and registered in England and Wales. Our governing document is our Articles of Association, which can be viewed here.