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City of Canterbury BankstownCommunity profile

In Bankstown Ward in 2021, the largest religious group was Islam (36.8% of all people), while 11.4% of people had no religion and 8.6% did not answer the question on religion.

Bankstown Ward'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.

Bankstown Ward'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
Bankstown Ward - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Religion totalsNumber%City of Canterbury Bankstown %Number%City of Canterbury Bankstown %2016 to 2021
Christian total26,17734.341.826,78238.346.8-606
Non Christian total34,58145.432.429,76642.629.5+4,815
Non-classifiable religious belief1850.20.31520.20.3+33
No Religion/secular beliefs8,71711.417.66,6619.515.1+2,055
Not stated6,5908.68.06,5559.48.4+35
Total Population76,250100.0100.069,918100.0100.0+6,332
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
Bankstown Ward - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
ReligionNumber%City of Canterbury Bankstown %Number%City of Canterbury Bankstown %2016 to 2021
Islam28,08036.823.623,67733.920.8+4,403
Western (Roman) Catholic10,78214.118.111,28216.120.4-500
Buddhism5,2506.96.14,9257.06.1+325
Maronite Catholic4,0745.33.13,5645.12.8+509
Greek Orthodox2,8193.76.63,0494.47.1-230
Christian,nfd1,6952.22.31,4722.12.2+223
Anglican1,2351.64.01,6722.45.7-437
Other Eastern Orthodox1,0981.40.98611.20.7+237
Hinduism9011.22.17291.01.9+171
Macedonian Orthodox7020.90.87811.10.9-79
Show all (32 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 Bankstown Ward in 2021 compared to the City of Canterbury Bankstown shows that there was a higher proportion of people who professed a religion and a lower proportion who stated they had no religion.

Overall, 79.7% of the population nominated a religion, and 11.4% said they had no religion, compared with 74.1% and 17.6% respectively for the City of Canterbury Bankstown.

The largest single religion in Bankstown Ward was Islam, with 36.8% of the population or 28,080 people as adherents.

The major differences between the religious affiliation for the population of Bankstown Ward and the City of Canterbury Bankstown were:

  • A larger percentage who nominated Islam (36.8% compared to 23.6%)
  • A smaller percentage who nominated Western (Roman) Catholic (14.1% compared to 18.1%)
  • A smaller percentage who nominated Greek Orthodox (3.7% compared to 6.6%)
  • A smaller percentage who nominated Anglican (1.6% compared to 4.0%)

Emerging groups

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

  • Islam (+4,403 persons)
  • Maronite Catholic (+509 persons)
  • Western (Roman) Catholic (-500 persons)
  • Anglican (-437 persons)

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