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AustraliaCommunity profile

Greater Capital Cities

Religion

In Greater Capital Cities in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (20.1% of all people), while 37.3% of people had no religion and 6.1% did not answer the question on religion.

Greater Capital Cities's religion statistics provide an indicator of cultural identity and ethnicity when observed in conjunction with other key variables. Religion data reveal the major concentrations of religions as well as revealing the proportion of people with no religious affiliation. There are a number of reasons for different religious compositions across areas including the country of birth and ethnic background of the population, the age of the population (belief in religion is generally stronger, the older the population) and changes in values and belief systems.

Greater Capital Cities's religion statistics should be analysed in conjunction with other ethnicity statistics such as Country of Birth data and Language Spoken data to assist in identifying specific cultural and ethnic groups.

Please note: Due to changes in ABS rules around perturbation and additivity of data to protect the confidentiality of individuals, counts of individual religion groups and totals derived from them may differ slightly from those published by the ABS.

Q:

Derived from the Census question:

'What is the person's religion?'

Religion - Summary
Greater Capital Cities - Total persons (Usual residence)20212011Change
Religion totalsNumber%Australia %Number%Australia %2011 to 2021
Christian total7,068,28442.743.98,092,54958.961.1-1,024,265
Non Christian total2,227,72413.410.01,360,4779.97.2+867,247
Non-classifiable religious belief90,1920.50.6109,0330.80.8-18,841
No Religion/secular beliefs6,175,05137.338.73,057,87522.222.3+3,117,176
Not stated1,004,7946.16.91,124,0728.28.6-119,278
Total Population16,566,045100.0100.013,744,006100.0100.0+2,822,039
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2011 and 2021. Compiled and presented by .id (informed decisions).
Please refer to specific data notes for more information
Religion - Ranked by size
Greater Capital Cities - Total persons (Usual residence)20212011Change
ReligionNumber%Australia %Number%Australia %2011 to 2021
Western (Roman) Catholic3,330,06320.119.63,542,45525.825.1-212,392
Anglican1,343,6988.19.82,037,01114.817.1-693,313
Islam741,9124.53.2435,0943.22.2+306,818
Hinduism605,3323.72.7249,5951.81.3+355,737
Buddhism530,4913.22.4456,1513.32.5+74,340
Christian,nfd462,9112.82.7289,8262.12.2+173,085
Greek Orthodox354,3472.11.5348,7422.51.8+5,605
Uniting Church335,4542.02.6542,3373.95.0-206,883
Baptist233,1961.41.4229,4801.71.6+3,716
Presbyterian and Reformed224,2241.41.6315,9902.32.8-91,766
Show all (41 entries)
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2011 and 2021. Compiled and presented by .id (informed decisions).
Please refer to specific data notes for more information

Excludes religions with fewer than 10 adherents.

Dominant groups

Analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of Greater Capital Cities in 2021 compared to Australia shows that there was a higher proportion of people who professed a religion and a lower proportion who stated they had no religion.

Overall, 56.1% of the population nominated a religion, and 37.3% said they had no religion, compared with 53.8% and 38.7% respectively for Australia.

The largest single religion in Greater Capital Cities was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 20.1% of the population or 3,330,063 people as adherents.

The major differences between the religious affiliation for the population of Greater Capital Cities and Australia were:

  • A larger percentage who nominated Islam (4.5% compared to 3.2%)
  • A smaller percentage who nominated Anglican (8.1% compared to 9.8%)

Emerging groups

The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in Greater Capital Cities between 2011 and 2021 were for those who nominated:

  • Anglican (-693,313 persons)
  • Hinduism (+355,737 persons)
  • Islam (+306,818 persons)
  • Western (Roman) Catholic (-212,392 persons)

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