In Waverley Council Area in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (18.7% of all people), while 41.8% of people had no religion and 7.6% did not answer the question on religion.
Waverley Council Area'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.
Waverley Council Area'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.
'What is the person's religion?'
| Religion - Summary | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waverley Council Area - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion totals | Number | % | SSROC region % | Number | % | SSROC region % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Christian total | 21,664 | 31.6 | 42.8 | 22,797 | 34.1 | 46.7 | -1,133 |
| Non Christian total | 12,667 | 18.5 | 16.5 | 11,629 | 17.4 | 15.0 | +1,038 |
| Non-classifiable religious belief | 448 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 512 | 0.8 | 0.5 | -64 |
| No Religion/secular beliefs | 28,644 | 41.8 | 33.5 | 22,609 | 33.8 | 28.1 | +6,035 |
| Not stated | 5,183 | 7.6 | 6.7 | 9,271 | 13.9 | 9.7 | -4,088 |
| Total Population | 68,606 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 66,818 | 100.0 | 100.0 | +1,788 |
| Religion - Ranked by size | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waverley Council Area - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion | Number | % | SSROC region % | Number | % | SSROC region % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Western (Roman) Catholic | 12,850 | 18.7 | 21.1 | 13,256 | 19.8 | 22.5 | -406 |
| Judaism | 11,009 | 16.0 | 1.7 | 10,076 | 15.1 | 1.6 | +933 |
| Anglican | 4,601 | 6.7 | 7.0 | 5,312 | 8.0 | 8.8 | -711 |
| Greek Orthodox | 1,391 | 2.0 | 4.8 | 1,223 | 1.8 | 4.8 | +168 |
| Buddhism | 827 | 1.2 | 4.2 | 865 | 1.3 | 4.2 | -38 |
| Christian,nfd | 668 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 630 | 0.9 | 1.9 | +38 |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | 495 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 706 | 1.1 | 1.6 | -211 |
| Uniting Church | 430 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 525 | 0.8 | 1.5 | -95 |
| Islam | 315 | 0.5 | 7.2 | 256 | 0.4 | 6.2 | +59 |
| Hinduism | 311 | 0.5 | 3.0 | 250 | 0.4 | 2.5 | +61 |
Analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of Waverley Council Area in 2021 compared to SSROC region shows that there was a lower proportion of people who professed a religion and a higher proportion who stated they had no religion.
Overall, 50.0% of the population nominated a religion, and 41.8% said they had no religion, compared with 59.4% and 33.5% respectively for SSROC region.
The largest single religion in Waverley Council Area was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 18.7% of the population or 12,850 people as adherents.
The major differences between the religious affiliation for the population of Waverley Council Area and SSROC region were:
The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in Waverley Council Area between 2016 and 2021 were for those who nominated:
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