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Western Sydney (LGA)Community profile

Western Sydney (LGA)

Religion

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In Western Sydney (LGA) in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (22.6% of all people), while 22.0% of people had no religion and 6.7% did not answer the question on religion.

Western Sydney (LGA)'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.

Western Sydney (LGA)'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
Western Sydney (LGA) - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Religion totalsNumber%Greater Sydney %Number%Greater Sydney %2016 to 2021
Christian total1,216,90446.745.81,233,14553.451.7-16,241
Non Christian total632,27724.317.0474,22320.614.4+158,054
Non-classifiable religious belief9,8110.40.59,0830.40.5+728
No Religion/secular beliefs573,43722.030.5410,64217.824.9+162,795
Not stated174,1756.76.2180,1057.88.5-5,930
Total Population2,606,604100.0100.02,307,198100.0100.0+299,406
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
Western Sydney (LGA) - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
ReligionNumber%Greater Sydney %Number%Greater Sydney %2016 to 2021
Western (Roman) Catholic588,09122.622.1586,53825.424.2+1,553
Islam277,81410.76.3210,6839.15.3+67,131
Anglican203,8737.89.2248,90910.812.0-45,036
Hinduism178,1816.84.8113,4624.93.5+64,719
Buddhism121,5034.73.8110,5664.83.9+10,937
Christian,nfd77,2793.02.560,7232.62.2+16,556
Greek Orthodox52,2052.02.350,6162.22.4+1,589
Presbyterian and Reformed37,0051.41.542,1851.82.0-5,180
Uniting Church33,7861.31.541,2291.82.0-7,443
Sikhism33,7211.30.722,6741.00.6+11,047
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 Western Sydney (LGA) in 2021 compared to Greater Sydney shows that there was a higher proportion of people who professed a religion and a lower proportion who stated they had no religion.

Overall, 70.9% of the population nominated a religion, and 22.0% said they had no religion, compared with 62.8% and 30.5% respectively for Greater Sydney.

The largest single religion in Western Sydney (LGA) was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 22.6% of the population or 588,091 people as adherents.

The major differences between the religious affiliation for the population of Western Sydney (LGA) and Greater Sydney were:

  • A larger percentage who nominated Islam (10.7% compared to 6.3%)
  • A larger percentage who nominated Hinduism (6.8% compared to 4.8%)
  • A smaller percentage who nominated Anglican (7.8% compared to 9.2%)

Emerging groups

The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in Western Sydney (LGA) between 2016 and 2021 were for those who nominated:

  • Islam (+67,131 persons)
  • Hinduism (+64,719 persons)
  • Anglican (-45,036 persons)
  • Christian,nfd (+16,556 persons)

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