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LEARN MORE ABOUT .idIn Sunshine Coast in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (15.7% of all people), while 46.4% of people had no religion and 6.7% did not answer the question on religion.
Sunshine Coast'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.
Sunshine Coast'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 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunshine Coast - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion totals | Number | % | Wurtulla - Buddina and District % | Number | % | Wurtulla - Buddina and District % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Christian total | 149,504 | 43.6 | 44.7 | 160,634 | 54.6 | 55.9 | -11,130 |
| Non Christian total | 8,627 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 6,793 | 2.3 | 1.8 | +1,834 |
| Non-classifiable religious belief | 2,486 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 2,474 | 0.8 | 0.8 | +12 |
| No Religion/secular beliefs | 158,960 | 46.4 | 46.1 | 99,523 | 33.8 | 33.2 | +59,437 |
| Not stated | 22,955 | 6.7 | 6.6 | 24,946 | 8.5 | 8.3 | -1,991 |
| Total Population | 342,532 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 294,370 | 100.0 | 100.0 | +48,162 |
| Religion - Ranked by size | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunshine Coast - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion | Number | % | Wurtulla - Buddina and District % | Number | % | Wurtulla - Buddina and District % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Western (Roman) Catholic | 53,893 | 15.7 | 17.0 | 53,783 | 18.3 | 20.4 | +110 |
| Anglican | 41,405 | 12.1 | 12.7 | 49,032 | 16.7 | 17.2 | -7,627 |
| Uniting Church | 12,751 | 3.7 | 3.9 | 15,738 | 5.3 | 5.4 | -2,987 |
| Christian,nfd | 11,553 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 10,176 | 3.5 | 3.1 | +1,377 |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | 7,138 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 9,080 | 3.1 | 3.0 | -1,942 |
| Baptist | 6,796 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 6,634 | 2.3 | 1.6 | +162 |
| Pentecostal | 5,107 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 4,925 | 1.7 | 1.8 | +182 |
| Buddhism | 3,384 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 3,515 | 1.2 | 0.9 | -131 |
| Lutheran | 3,274 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 3,660 | 1.2 | 1.2 | -386 |
| Hinduism | 2,280 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1,103 | 0.4 | 0.4 | +1,177 |
Show all (40 entries)
Dominant groups
Analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of Sunshine Coast in 2021 compared to Wurtulla - Buddina and District shows that there was a lower proportion of people who professed a religion and a similar proportion who stated they had no religion.
Overall, 46.2% of the population nominated a religion, and 46.4% said they had no religion, compared with 46.8% and 46.1% respectively for Wurtulla - Buddina and District.
The largest single religion in Sunshine Coast was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 15.7% of the population or 53,893 people as adherents.
The major difference between the religious affiliation for the population of Sunshine Coast and Wurtulla - Buddina and District was:
- A smaller percentage who nominated Western (Roman) Catholic (15.7% compared to 17.0%)
Emerging groups
The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in Sunshine Coast between 2016 and 2021 were for those who nominated:
- Anglican (-7,627 persons)
- Uniting Church (-2,987 persons)
- Presbyterian and Reformed (-1,942 persons)
- Christian,nfd (+1,377 persons)
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