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In Greater Melbourne in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (20.5% of all people), while 37.2% of people had no religion and 5.8% did not answer the question on religion.

Greater Melbourne'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 Melbourne'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 Melbourne - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Religion totalsNumber%Australia %Number%Australia %2016 to 2021
Christian total1,974,00640.143.92,075,00146.352.1-100,995
Non Christian total801,72616.310.0593,30013.28.2+208,426
Non-classifiable religious belief27,3430.60.629,1830.70.6-1,840
No Religion/secular beliefs1,827,61837.238.71,404,05231.329.9+423,566
Not stated287,0485.86.9383,6708.69.1-96,622
Total Population4,917,741100.0100.04,485,206100.0100.0+432,535
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
Greater Melbourne - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
ReligionNumber%Australia %Number%Australia %2016 to 2021
Western (Roman) Catholic1,009,26820.519.61,039,75123.222.3-30,483
Anglican269,8995.59.8340,0287.613.3-70,129
Islam258,2505.33.2186,6544.22.6+71,596
Hinduism203,1924.12.7128,9402.91.9+74,252
Buddhism190,4543.92.4170,5533.82.4+19,901
Greek Orthodox163,1143.31.5156,2473.51.6+6,867
Christian,nfd132,8352.72.7116,3442.62.6+16,491
Sikhism85,2861.70.849,6011.10.5+35,685
Uniting Church82,5741.72.6104,1382.33.7-21,564
Baptist62,4501.31.458,7801.31.5+3,670
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 Greater Melbourne 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, 56.4% of the population nominated a religion, and 37.2% said they had no religion, compared with 53.8% and 38.7% respectively for Australia.

The largest single religion in Greater Melbourne was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 20.5% of the population or 1,009,268 people as adherents.

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

  • A larger percentage who nominated Islam (5.3% compared to 3.2%)
  • A larger percentage who nominated Greek Orthodox (3.3% compared to 1.5%)
  • A larger percentage who nominated Buddhism (3.9% compared to 2.4%)
  • A smaller percentage who nominated Anglican (5.5% compared to 9.8%)

Emerging groups

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

  • Hinduism (+74,252 persons)
  • Islam (+71,596 persons)
  • Anglican (-70,129 persons)
  • Sikhism (+35,685 persons)

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