Powered by .id (informed decisions) for Shellharbour City Council
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LEARN MORE ABOUT .idIn Shellharbour City in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (24.8% of all people), while 36.9% of people had no religion and 5.8% did not answer the question on religion.
Shellharbour City'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.
Shellharbour City'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 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shellharbour City - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion totals | Number | % | Regional NSW % | Number | % | Regional NSW % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Christian total | 41,362 | 54.2 | 51.1 | 44,401 | 64.9 | 61.5 | -3,039 |
| Non Christian total | 1,962 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 1,538 | 2.2 | 2.3 | +424 |
| Non-classifiable religious belief | 339 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 363 | 0.5 | 0.6 | -24 |
| No Religion/secular beliefs | 28,150 | 36.9 | 37.6 | 17,284 | 25.2 | 26.3 | +10,866 |
| Not stated | 4,439 | 5.8 | 7.7 | 4,874 | 7.1 | 9.3 | -435 |
| Total Population | 76,252 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 68,460 | 100.0 | 100.0 | +7,792 |
| Religion - Ranked by size | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shellharbour City - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion | Number | % | Regional NSW % | Number | % | Regional NSW % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Western (Roman) Catholic | 18,889 | 24.8 | 21.0 | 19,110 | 27.9 | 23.8 | -221 |
| Anglican | 11,857 | 15.5 | 17.0 | 14,084 | 20.6 | 21.9 | -2,227 |
| Christian,nfd | 2,215 | 2.9 | 2.2 | 2,011 | 2.9 | 2.2 | +204 |
| Uniting Church | 1,769 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 2,300 | 3.4 | 4.5 | -531 |
| Macedonian Orthodox | 1,486 | 1.9 | 0.3 | 1,335 | 2.0 | 0.3 | +151 |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | 1,249 | 1.6 | 2.6 | 1,658 | 2.4 | 3.5 | -409 |
| Islam | 890 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 642 | 0.9 | 0.5 | +248 |
| Greek Orthodox | 845 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 792 | 1.2 | 0.4 | +53 |
| Pentecostal | 645 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 678 | 1.0 | 0.9 | -33 |
| Baptist | 578 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 573 | 0.8 | 1.3 | +5 |
Show all (36 entries)
Dominant groups
Analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of Shellharbour City in 2021 compared to Regional NSW shows that there was a higher proportion of people who professed a religion and a lower proportion who stated they had no religion.
Overall, 56.8% of the population nominated a religion, and 36.9% said they had no religion, compared with 54.1% and 37.6% respectively for Regional NSW.
The largest single religion in Shellharbour City was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 24.8% of the population or 18,889 people as adherents.
The major differences between the religious affiliation for the population of Shellharbour City and Regional NSW were:
- A larger percentage who nominated Western (Roman) Catholic (24.8% compared to 21.0%)
- A larger percentage who nominated Macedonian Orthodox (1.9% compared to 0.3%)
- A smaller percentage who nominated Anglican (15.5% compared to 17.0%)
- A smaller percentage who nominated Uniting Church (2.3% compared to 3.3%)
Emerging groups
The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in Shellharbour City between 2016 and 2021 were for those who nominated:
- Anglican (-2,227 persons)
- Uniting Church (-531 persons)
- Presbyterian and Reformed (-409 persons)
- Islam (+248 persons)
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