SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

CENSUS: ALMOST A THIRD OF AUSTRALIANS TICK ‘NO RELIGION’ BUT MORE THAN HALF IDENTIFY AS CHRISTIANS

Census1 small

DAVID ADAMS reports on what the 2016 Census reveals about Australia’s religious landscape…

Almost a third of Australians – a record number – say they have ‘no religion’, according to data from the country’s 2016 Census.

Despite the increase in people reporting ‘no religion’ rising from 22 per cent in 2011 to 30 per cent, however, the data – released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week – also shows that the majority of Australians – 60 per cent – still report a religious affiliation.

 Census1

FINDINGS: The changing religious landscape in Australia. GRAPHIC: Australian Bureau of Statistics/ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2006, 2011, 2016

 

“I wouldn’t say it’s an abandoning of Christianity as much as a more transparent and credible response to the question.”

– Social researcher Mark McCrindle.

Part of the decline in religious affiliation, according to the ABS, is also due to “a general move away from the traditional Christian denominations”. While 52 per cent of people reported an affiliation with the Christian religion – predominantly Catholic (23 per cent) and Anglican (13 per cent) – that figure was down on the 61 per cent who did so in the 2011 Census and very different to the more than 88 per cent who declared Christianity was their religion back in 1966.

Social researcher Mark McCrindle says the increase in people ticking the ‘no religion’ box was bigger than expected – from just over one in five people Australians in 2011 to almost one in three – and the drop in the number of people reporting an affiliation with Christian denominations was also significant.

While he says trends showing rising numbers reporting ‘no religion’ and declining numbers claiming religious affiliation are not new, he adds that “we are now seeing them more starkly”.

Mr McCrindle, principal of McCrindle Research, says the fact ‘no religion’ was put at the top of the list of options for the first time was certainly a factor in the change, although he notes that the ABS made the correct call methodologically, given it was the single largest category people selected (while Christianity as a whole received a bigger result, ‘Christianity’ itself wasn’t an option on the form – people had to select a denomination). It’s also possible that a national campaign from the Australian Atheist Foundation encouraging people to tick the ‘no religion’ box in the lead-up to the Census was a factor (although, it’s worth noting that another campaign, created by Sydney-based Christian Media & Arts Australia and based around the ‘Yes Religion’ website, was run to encourage Christians who may not consider themselves ‘religious’ to tick yes to the question) .

But Mr McCrindle says that the change also reflects a broad shift in attitudes towards religion, away from nominalism, family tradition and what could be described as ‘cultural Christianity’.

“Australians are saying ‘Well, even though ancestrally there’s been a connection with that denomination or other…it’s not my religion, it’s not my practice and my current reality is no religion, so that’s what I’m going to tick’…Australians are responding to that sort of thinking.”

Census3

Emerging major religions, 2006-2016 (percentages are a proportion of total population). GRAPHIC: Australian Bureau of Statistics/ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2006, 2011, 2016

It’s a move Mr McCrindle welcomes. “I actually think it’s better for everyone to have some clear data rather than people ticking something out of some tradition or history. It’s better to know what the lay of the land really is and that’s what we’re getting…The landscape has changed. Australians have changed. [And] I think our attitude to religion has changed and it’s not about that historical connection, it’s about our current connection and it’s not about the institution…”

While some have characterised the data as showing Australians were ‘abandoning religion’, Mr McCrindle, whose company recently conducted a survey which revealed 45 per cent of Australians considered themselves a Christian but that a further 14 per cent identified themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’, says that instead it shows that nominalism has dissipated and we were now seeing the “real snapshot of what’s going on”.

“I wouldn’t say it’s an abandoning of Christianity as much as a more transparent and credible response to the question.”

The changing landscape of Australians when it comes to religion can also been seen in the demographic data which shows that older people were more likely to report a religious affiliation than younger people with as many as 39 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 reporting ‘no religion’. 

“For every older, 65 plus, that says no religion, you’ve got five times as many saying Christianity, [while] for 18-to-34-year-olds, almost as many as say ‘Christianity’ as say ‘no religion’ so there’s a very clear generational trend here,” Mr McCrindle says.

Men were slightly less likely to report being a Christian than women (50 per cent and 55 per cent respectively) and men were more likely to say they had no religion (32 per cent) than women (28 per cent). 

Across the states, Queensland had the highest proportion of people who said they were Christian (56 per cent) followed by New South Wales (55 per cent) and Western Australia and Tasmania (50 per cent). Victoria and the Northern Territory had the lowest proportion of Christians – 47.9 per cent and 47.7 per cent respectively. The Australian Capital Territory had the highest proportion of people who ticked ‘no religion’ – 37 per cent – while Victoria had the highest proportion of people who selected a religion other than Christianity – 11 per cent.

Meanwhile, Christianity aside, some 8.2 per cent of people claimed an affiliation with another religion in the latest census. A breakdown of this figure shows Islam, which 2.6 per cent of people identified as their religion up from 2.2 per cent in 2011, has now passed Buddhism, which moved down slightly from 2.5 per cent in 2011 to 2.4 per in 2016, and is the second largest recognised religion in Australia. Among other religions, 1.9 per cent put Hinduism as their religion (up from 1.3 per cent), 0.5 per cent said Sikhism (up from 0.3 per cent) and 0.4 per cent said Judaism (down from 0.5 per cent).

Census2

Religious affiliation and age, 2016. GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC: Australian Bureau of Statistics/ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2016

Other key findings among the 68 million pieces of data released this week show:

• The estimated current resident population of Australia is 24.6 million people;

• Australia’s population continues to age with one in every six over the age of 65 (the median age is now 38 compared to 23 in 1911);

• Some 2.8 per cent of the population is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, an increase of 18 per cent since 2011;

• Two-thirds of Australians live in the country’s capital cities with Sydney (4.8 million people) still the most populous city followed by Melbourne (4.4 million); and,

• Australia is the most multicultural nation in the world with almost half of Australians either born overseas or with at least one parent born overseas.

The figures reveal that immigration continues to shift away from Europe to Asian nations like China and India now the top places of birth for migrants since 2011.

“And the fact now that one fifth of all overseas born residents have arrived in the last five years just shows the pace of migration,” says Mr McCrindle.

The data also shows that New South Wales remains the most populous state with 7.5 million people followed by Victoria with 5.9 million and Queensland with 4.7 million. The Australian Capital Territory is the fastest growing state or territory.

While average weekly household incomes increased by 16.5 per cent to $1,438 between 2011 and 2016, the proportion of Australians who owned their own homes outright has dropped, from 32 per cent to 31 per cent while the proportion of those renting moved up from 30 per cent in 2011 to 31 per cent.

The ABS said 95 per cent of Australian households completed the Census and, despite well-reported problems with the online system on Census night, the organisation said that in the end, some 63 per cent of people completed it online – a record figure.

 

Donate



sight plus logo

Sight+ is a new benefits program we’ve launched to reward people who have supported us with annual donations of $26 or more. To find out more about Sight+ and how you can support the work of Sight, head to our Sight+ page.

Musings

TAKE PART IN THE SIGHT READER SURVEY!

We’re interested to find out more about you, our readers, as we improve and expand our coverage and so we’re asking all of our readers to take this survey (it’ll only take a couple of minutes).

To take part in the survey, simply follow this link…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.