WORCESTER residents are "Godless" during the festive season, shunning the church - whereas Hereford has the biggest Christmas spirit out of all the cities in the UK.

Most churches expect more worshippers at Christmas with the lure of carols, candlelight and crib scenes.

But, while attendance rockets by 200 per cent in rural villages, Britain's cities - including Worcester - only sees a few more "Christmas tourists" filling the pews, according to new research.

However, bucking the trend is Hereford, which has the highest number of people attending church at Christmas than any other city in the country.

The findings are based on Church of England attendance records for all 43 diocese in England.

Dr Voas, a University of Manchester specialist in religious change in modern societies who carried out the research, said: "If you want to find the Christmas spirit in your parish church, go to Hereford.

"More than 10 per cent of the population in the diocese of Hereford will be in an Anglican church at Christmas - two-and-a-half times the typical attendance throughout the rest of the year.

"That is three times as many as in London, four times as many as in Birmingham, and five times as many as in Manchester."

Worcester, on the other hand, does not share Hereford's Christmas cheer. It was ranked 16th from the bottom of the list - with just 4.9 per cent of the Faithful City attending church over the festive season.

He said it was a "fair comment" to say cities with a low attendance like Worcester are "Godless" at Christmas.

"Whatever people are doing about God, they don't do it in church," he added.

"Urban culture encourages people who are doing their own thing."

Canon Robert Jones, Rural Dean of Worcester and rector of St Barnabas with Christchurch, disagreed that people in Worcester were Godless.

"For instance, carol singers from all the churches in Worcester singing outside Tesco raised nearly £1,200 for Christian Aid," he said.

"And my impression is that people are going to church at special times of the year, like Christmas, as much, if not more than in previous years."

Anni Holden, director of communications for the Hereford diocese, said the figures reflected the sense of community throughout Herefordshire.

"In the Hereford diocese we have a church in every village and often it is the only public building, so it plays host to lots of village activity," she said.

"It is this sense of community which is so important in bringing people into church."