Regardless of their apparently mixed ancestry, the islanders' views of their identity revolve primarily around the twin notions of a St Helenian local identity and a British national identity.  While the ascription and self-ascription of an English or British identity to St Helena's population was first restricted to the island's white settlers, it gradually came to encompass the island's entire population.  Today, there are no divisions in terms of race or cultural identity.
 
However, questions of culture and identity are not merely of an academic interest, but have recently become highly politicised.  In consequence of the Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962, St Helenians lost their right of abode in the United Kingdom, although they continued to be termed citizens of the United Kingdom and colonies.  A change in their designation came as a result of the British Nationality Act 1981, by which they were styled 'British Dependent Territories Citizens'.  This, islanders felt, went counter to the guarantees given to them by Charles II in his charter of 1673 which, in common with charters given to other early English plantations, declared “That all and every the persons being Our Subjects which doe or shall Inhabite within the said Port and Island and every of theire Chilldren and posteritie which shall happen to bee borne within the Precincts and limitts thereof shall have and enioy all Liberties Franchises Immunities Capacities and abilities of ffree Denizens and naturall Subiects within any of Our Dominions to all intents and purposes as if they had beene abideing and borne within this Our Kingdom of England.

The denial of this perceived entitlement of St Helenians to right of abode in the United Kingdom, and the corresponding denial of the status of British Citizens, prompted the synod of the diocese of St Helena to set up a commission into the question of citizenship.  It is this commission which argues in its report of 1996 that St Helena should be considered as the 'lost county of England'. This view is not unreasonable.  Visitors to St Helena, who have produced quite a considerable body of literature, have generally tended to stress the British character of the island, both with respect to its landscape and its inhabitants.  Charles Darwin, for one, wrote on his visit in 1836 that “it is surprising to behold a vegetation possessing a character decidedly British. The hills are crowned with irregular plantations of Scotch firs; and the sloping banks are thickly scattered over with thickets of gorse, covered with its bright yellow flowers. Weeping-willows are common on the banks of the rivulets, and the hedges are made of the blackberry, producing its well-known fruit ...  The English, or rather Welsh character of the scenery, is kept up by the numerous cottages and small white houses; some buried at the bottom of the deepest valleys, and others mounted on the crests of the lofty hills.

Likewise, the island's architecture has tended towards English ideals, there being no indigenous styles to compete with or be inspired by.  In any case, the East India Company's instructions, affected most aspects of island life quite unequivocally.  In 1682, for instance, the Company had issued instructions, requiring that “in the contriving of the market place and the building for increasing of the ffort Towne, We would have you use all possible regard to the uniformity & regularity of the Streetes & buildings after the manner they are now in London since the ffire. Another factor in reinforcing the impression of St Helena's Englishness, has been the islanders' particular dialect of English.  Writing in 1899, R.A. Sterndale commented that the “St. Helenian of to-day, however dark complexioned he may be, is English in thought, manners, and language - in fact the English tongue is spoken by him with greater purity than in most of our rural districts in England.” This suppossed purity, however defined, has given rise to numerous and often ill founded theories as to its regional origins.  English continues to be the only language spoken on St Helena.

In terms of religious ascription, St Helena's population is predominantly Protestant and Anglican, although the island is a diocese within the Province of South Africa.  The first pastor arrived on the island in 1671 in the service of the East India Company, and the building of St James' church was begun that same year.  A few years later, a second church was built in the country.  St Helena became its own diocese in 1859 and Jamestown was designated a city, although its cathedral, the former country church, is located several miles away at St Paul's.  Prior to this, the island had been part of the diocese of Cape Town.   In 1861, St Helena was divided into the three parishes of St James', St Paul's, and St Matthew's.  The second oldest religious community on the island is that of the Baptists, who's foundation goes back to 1845, when a Scottish evangelist arrived at Jamestown from the Cape.  A mission house was purchased the following year, and the first of four Baptist churches was opened in 1854.   Other communities have been established for almost as long.  Since 1852, a succession of Roman Catholic priests has been sent to St Helena, initially as military chaplains.  The island's Salvation Army dates from 1884.  As nonconformity has never been a bar to settlement on St Helena, many others religious movements or communities have at some time or other made a mark in St Helena's history, including the Seventh-Day-Adventist Church and the Jehovah's Witnesses, and there remains a varied religious landscape to the present day.