Worshippers gather for The Stations of the Cross as part of Good Friday Easter services at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.
For the first time ever, "no religion" has overtaken any single religious denomination, toppling Catholicism as the number one religious affiliation for Australians, the latest national census released on Tuesday revealed.
Australia remains a fairly religious country, with 60% of people reporting a religious affiliation.
In 1966 only 0.8% of Australians ticked the box for "No religion", which includes atheists, secularists and agnostics.
The proportion of people reporting no religion increased to 30.1% in 2016 – up from 22% five years ago, and nearly double the 16% reported in 2001.
Those aged from 18 to 34 were most likely to report not having a religion (39%) than other age groups. Those aged 65 years and over were more likely to report a religious affiliation.
Christianity is still the most common religion (52% of Australians identified as any of the Christian denominations) but has been declining in popularity in Australia for the past 50 years – in 1966, 88% of Australians identified as Christian and by 1991 it was 74%.
Catholicism is the largest Christian grouping, accounting for almost a quarter (22.6%) of the Australian population.
wisty on June 27th, 2017 at 04:28 UTC »
Catholic - 22.6%, Anglican - 13.3%, Other Christian - 16.3%, total Christian - 52.1%.
Also Islam - 2.6%, Buddhism - 2.4%, Hindu - 1.9%, a few others ... total non-Christian but religious - 8.2%.
No region - 30.1%.
So I'd say it's not really the biggest religion, Christianity is still bigger, though I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Christians are not particularly devout. The rapid growth in "no religion" isn't just people changing what they believe, but also how they identify (people who were baptized or went to Sunday school 20 years ago might have previously identified as Christian, and now don't). The Royal Commission into child abuse by religious institutions might have been a factor here.
Socrates_Burrito on June 27th, 2017 at 03:56 UTC »
You gotta love that the headline is what it is yet this sentence is in the article:
Yes, I understand in the survey Christianity was broken down into denominations but still...
SalokinSekwah on June 27th, 2017 at 03:06 UTC »
As an Australian this is quite interesting, however...religion does have sway over our policies this is seen in gay marriage being stuck in a daft plebiscite and a bizarre focus on Islam when only about 2% of the pop are muslim