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City of Greater BendigoCommunity profile

City of Greater Bendigo

Religion

In the City of Greater Bendigo in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (18.9% of all people), while 47.0% of people had no religion and 6.7% did not answer the question on religion.

The City of Greater Bendigo'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.

The City of Greater Bendigo'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
City of Greater Bendigo - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Religion totalsNumber%Regional VIC %Number%Regional VIC %2016 to 2021
Christian total51,63642.543.356,94851.553.1-5,312
Non Christian total3,8723.23.32,5952.32.4+1,277
Non-classifiable religious belief7010.60.67010.60.60
No Religion/secular beliefs57,12947.045.240,03336.234.0+17,096
Not stated8,1356.77.710,2049.29.8-2,069
Total Population121,473100.0100.0110,481100.0100.0+10,992
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
City of Greater Bendigo - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
ReligionNumber%Regional VIC %Number%Regional VIC %2016 to 2021
Western (Roman) Catholic22,89918.919.724,35822.022.7-1,459
Anglican11,8149.79.814,42513.113.3-2,611
Uniting Church5,9224.94.77,5596.86.5-1,637
Baptist2,6992.21.22,2622.01.3+437
Christian,nfd2,5612.12.12,4582.22.1+103
Presbyterian and Reformed1,9161.62.22,4632.23.3-547
Buddhism1,4421.20.91,0791.00.8+363
Pentecostal1,2871.10.71,0611.00.7+226
Hinduism8250.70.74950.40.4+330
Islam7590.60.94660.40.7+293
Show all (36 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 the City of Greater Bendigo in 2021 compared to Regional VIC shows that there was a lower proportion of people who professed a religion and a higher proportion who stated they had no religion.

Overall, 45.7% of the population nominated a religion, and 47.0% said they had no religion, compared with 46.5% and 45.2% respectively for Regional VIC.

The largest single religion in the City of Greater Bendigo was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 18.9% of the population or 22,899 people as adherents.

There were no major differences between City of Greater Bendigo and Regional VIC in 2021.

Emerging groups

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

  • Anglican (-2,611 persons)
  • Uniting Church (-1,637 persons)
  • Western (Roman) Catholic (-1,459 persons)
  • Presbyterian and Reformed (-547 persons)

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