Powered by .id (informed decisions) for Shoalhaven City Council
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LEARN MORE ABOUT .idIn Shoalhaven City in 2021, the largest religious group was Anglican (18.3% of all people), while 41.4% of people had no religion and 7.8% did not answer the question on religion.
Shoalhaven 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.
Shoalhaven 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 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoalhaven City - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion totals | Number | % | Nowra % | Number | % | Nowra % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Christian total | 52,125 | 48.0 | 44.4 | 58,391 | 58.6 | 54.9 | -6,266 |
| Non Christian total | 2,354 | 2.2 | 4.3 | 1,814 | 1.8 | 2.9 | +540 |
| Non-classifiable religious belief | 600 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 548 | 0.5 | 0.8 | +52 |
| No Religion/secular beliefs | 44,951 | 41.4 | 39.3 | 29,223 | 29.3 | 29.6 | +15,728 |
| Not stated | 8,507 | 7.8 | 11.3 | 9,671 | 9.7 | 11.9 | -1,164 |
| Total Population | 108,537 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 99,647 | 100.0 | 100.0 | +8,890 |
| Religion - Ranked by size | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoalhaven City - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion | Number | % | Nowra % | Number | % | Nowra % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Anglican | 19,817 | 18.3 | 15.8 | 24,033 | 24.1 | 21.4 | -4,216 |
| Western (Roman) Catholic | 19,486 | 18.0 | 17.2 | 20,176 | 20.2 | 19.5 | -690 |
| Uniting Church | 2,887 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 3,622 | 3.6 | 3.0 | -735 |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | 2,689 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 3,428 | 3.4 | 4.1 | -739 |
| Christian,nfd | 2,364 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 2,174 | 2.2 | -- | +190 |
| Baptist | 1,733 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 1,557 | 1.6 | 1.2 | +176 |
| Buddhism | 894 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 911 | 0.9 | 1.3 | -17 |
| Pentecostal | 715 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 870 | 0.9 | 1.0 | -155 |
| Greek Orthodox | 546 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 457 | 0.5 | 0.3 | +89 |
| Hinduism | 537 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 216 | 0.2 | 0.5 | +321 |
Show all (36 entries)
Dominant groups
Analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of Shoalhaven City in 2021 compared to Nowra shows that there was a higher proportion of people who professed a religion as well as a higher proportion who stated they had no religion.
Overall, 50.2% of the population nominated a religion, and 41.4% said they had no religion, compared with 48.7% and 39.3% respectively for Nowra.
The largest single religion in Shoalhaven City was Anglican, with 18.3% of the population or 19,817 people as adherents.
The major difference between the religious affiliation for the population of Shoalhaven City and Nowra was:
- A larger percentage who nominated Anglican (18.3% compared to 15.8%)
Emerging groups
The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in Shoalhaven City between 2016 and 2021 were for those who nominated:
- Anglican (-4,216 persons)
- Presbyterian and Reformed (-739 persons)
- Uniting Church (-735 persons)
- Western (Roman) Catholic (-690 persons)
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