“Who broke Britain? Someone—or something—must have.”

This was recently stated by an article in The Atlantic (June 24, 2026), which highlighted that “the country’s output per person is now only just above that of Mississippi, America’s poorest state—and that slight lead is only achieved thanks to London. Outside the capital, in places where tourists do not visit, living standards fall well below Mississippi’s.” Due to high mortgage rates and the end of a government home-ownership support program, demand for new homes has dropped, and home costs continue to rise—making them unaffordable for many (JRF.org, April 16, 2026).

How did Great Britain, a nation whose naval and economic power created nearly a century of robust global commerce and the “Pax Britannica,” fall to such depths? While few make the connection, in recent years “there has been a large fall in the number of people who consider themselves as Christian, dropping below half the population of England and Wales for the first time” (Sky News, November 29, 2022), and two-thirds of those surveyed in the United Kingdom categorized themselves as either “not religious” or “atheist” (King’s College London, May 2023). This coincides with a nearly 80 percent approval of the legalization of same-sex “marriage” (Statista, May 7, 2026).

Any society that moves away from biblical values sets itself on a course of self‑destruction. The Bible warns that when people forsake God’s laws, especially those nations to whom He has given abundant blessings, grave consequences follow (Leviticus 26:3–43). Discover how Britain rose to global dominance, why that dominance has faded, and what lies ahead by exploring our free study guide The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy.