Powered by .id (informed decisions) for Bega Valley Shire
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LEARN MORE ABOUT .idIn Bega Valley Shire in 2021, the largest religious group was Anglican (16.4% of all people), while 47.2% of people had no religion and 8.3% did not answer the question on religion.
Bega Valley Shire'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.
Bega Valley Shire'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 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bega Valley Shire - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion totals | Number | % | Eden Coast % | Number | % | Eden Coast % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Christian total | 15,032 | 41.8 | 44.6 | 17,319 | 52.1 | 54.4 | -2,287 |
| Non Christian total | 706 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 598 | 1.8 | 1.4 | +108 |
| Non-classifiable religious belief | 261 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 238 | 0.7 | 0.6 | +23 |
| No Religion/secular beliefs | 16,962 | 47.2 | 44.3 | 11,795 | 35.5 | 32.7 | +5,167 |
| Not stated | 2,976 | 8.3 | 9.1 | 3,309 | 9.9 | 10.9 | -333 |
| Total Population | 35,937 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 33,259 | 100.0 | 100.0 | +2,678 |
| Religion - Ranked by size | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bega Valley Shire - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion | Number | % | Eden Coast % | Number | % | Eden Coast % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Anglican | 5,885 | 16.4 | 17.6 | 7,277 | 21.9 | 23.6 | -1,392 |
| Western (Roman) Catholic | 5,437 | 15.1 | 17.0 | 5,947 | 17.9 | 18.3 | -510 |
| Uniting Church | 981 | 2.7 | 3.3 | 1,245 | 3.7 | 3.6 | -264 |
| Christian,nfd | 698 | 1.9 | 2.0 | 649 | 2.0 | 2.1 | +49 |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | 679 | 1.9 | 2.5 | 950 | 2.9 | 3.5 | -271 |
| Buddhism | 345 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 342 | 1.0 | 0.7 | +3 |
| Baptist | 293 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 361 | 1.1 | 0.6 | -68 |
| Jehova's Witnesses | 266 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 212 | 0.6 | 0.7 | +54 |
| Other Protestant | 184 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 82 | 0.2 | 0.3 | +102 |
| Pentecostal | 158 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 82 | 0.2 | 0.1 | +76 |
Show all (28 entries)
Dominant groups
Analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of Bega Valley Shire in 2021 compared to Eden Coast shows that there was a lower proportion of people who professed a religion and a higher proportion who stated they had no religion.
Overall, 43.8% of the population nominated a religion, and 47.2% said they had no religion, compared with 46.0% and 44.3% respectively for Eden Coast.
The largest single religion in Bega Valley Shire was Anglican, with 16.4% of the population or 5,885 people as adherents.
The major differences between the religious affiliation for the population of Bega Valley Shire and Eden Coast were:
- A smaller percentage who nominated Western (Roman) Catholic (15.1% compared to 17.0%)
- A smaller percentage who nominated Anglican (16.4% compared to 17.6%)
Emerging groups
The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in Bega Valley Shire between 2016 and 2021 were for those who nominated:
- Anglican (-1,392 persons)
- Western (Roman) Catholic (-510 persons)
- Presbyterian and Reformed (-271 persons)
- Uniting Church (-264 persons)
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