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AustraliaCommunity profile

Regional Australia

Religion

In Regional Australia in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (18.8% of all people), while 41.3% of people had no religion and 8.4% did not answer the question on religion.

Regional Australia'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.

Regional Australia'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
Regional Australia - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Religion totalsNumber%Queensland %Number%Queensland %2016 to 2021
Christian total3,893,73446.745.74,457,44857.356.0-563,714
Non Christian total254,1523.05.0192,8712.54.3+61,281
Non-classifiable religious belief47,9080.60.648,0800.60.7-172
No Religion/secular beliefs3,446,09341.341.02,301,85029.629.5+1,144,243
Not stated703,2508.47.6775,11610.09.5-71,866
Total Population8,345,137100.0100.07,775,365100.0100.0+569,772
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016 and 2021. Compiled and presented by .id (informed decisions).
Please refer to specific data notes for more information
Religion - Ranked by size
Regional Australia - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
ReligionNumber%Queensland %Number%Queensland %2016 to 2021
Western (Roman) Catholic1,571,98118.818.61,700,56721.921.7-128,586
Anglican1,111,52513.311.31,378,38417.715.3-266,859
Uniting Church328,6313.93.6429,6095.55.1-100,978
Christian,nfd213,5952.63.1198,6162.63.0+14,979
Presbyterian and Reformed183,7752.22.1240,5593.12.9-56,784
Baptist109,7691.31.7114,4061.51.9-4,637
Pentecostal82,5921.01.485,7121.11.5-3,120
Lutheran75,1950.90.988,4231.11.2-13,228
Buddhism71,8560.91.469,2490.91.5+2,607
Hinduism57,8930.71.333,6620.41.0+24,231
Show all (41 entries)
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016 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 Regional Australia in 2021 compared to Queensland shows that there was a lower proportion of people who professed a religion and a similar proportion who stated they had no religion.

Overall, 49.7% of the population nominated a religion, and 41.3% said they had no religion, compared with 50.7% and 41.0% respectively for Queensland.

The largest single religion in Regional Australia was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 18.8% of the population or 1,571,981 people as adherents.

The major difference between the religious affiliation for the population of Regional Australia and Queensland was:

  • A larger percentage who nominated Anglican (13.3% compared to 11.3%)

Emerging groups

The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in Regional Australia between 2016 and 2021 were for those who nominated:

  • Anglican (-266,859 persons)
  • Western (Roman) Catholic (-128,586 persons)
  • Uniting Church (-100,978 persons)
  • Presbyterian and Reformed (-56,784 persons)

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