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LEARN MORE ABOUT .idIn South Metropolitan Region in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (19.5% of all people), while 41.7% of people had no religion and 6.2% did not answer the question on religion.
South Metropolitan Region'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.
South Metropolitan Region'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 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Metropolitan Region - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion totals | Number | % | Armadale % | Number | % | Armadale % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Christian total | 289,743 | 40.7 | 39.5 | 314,734 | 48.5 | 47.9 | -24,991 |
| Non Christian total | 76,617 | 10.8 | 8.0 | 57,947 | 8.9 | 7.0 | +18,670 |
| Non-classifiable religious belief | 4,296 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 4,336 | 0.7 | 0.8 | -40 |
| No Religion/secular beliefs | 297,302 | 41.7 | 43.6 | 213,423 | 32.9 | 34.3 | +83,879 |
| Not stated | 44,219 | 6.2 | 8.1 | 58,846 | 9.1 | 9.9 | -14,627 |
| Total Population | 712,177 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 649,286 | 100.0 | 100.0 | +62,891 |
| Religion - Ranked by size | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Metropolitan Region - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2016 | Change | ||||
| Religion | Number | % | Armadale % | Number | % | Armadale % | 2016 to 2021 |
| Western (Roman) Catholic | 139,111 | 19.5 | 13.6 | 143,029 | 22.0 | 15.9 | -3,918 |
| Anglican | 62,378 | 8.8 | 9.2 | 82,083 | 12.6 | 14.1 | -19,705 |
| Christian,nfd | 25,272 | 3.5 | 5.1 | 20,704 | 3.2 | 4.7 | +4,568 |
| Islam | 22,895 | 3.2 | 2.8 | 16,649 | 2.6 | 2.1 | +6,246 |
| Hinduism | 21,230 | 3.0 | 2.3 | 14,705 | 2.3 | 2.1 | +6,525 |
| Buddhism | 20,014 | 2.8 | 1.5 | 18,094 | 2.8 | 1.6 | +1,920 |
| Baptist | 11,221 | 1.6 | 2.6 | 10,958 | 1.7 | 2.6 | +263 |
| Uniting Church | 10,789 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 13,744 | 2.1 | 1.4 | -2,955 |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | 10,694 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 13,004 | 2.0 | 3.4 | -2,310 |
| Sikhism | 8,814 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 5,077 | 0.8 | 0.6 | +3,737 |
Show all (40 entries)
Dominant groups
Analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of South Metropolitan Region in 2021 compared to Armadale shows that there was a higher proportion of people who professed a religion and a lower proportion who stated they had no religion.
Overall, 51.4% of the population nominated a religion, and 41.7% said they had no religion, compared with 47.6% and 43.6% respectively for Armadale.
The largest single religion in South Metropolitan Region was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 19.5% of the population or 139,111 people as adherents.
The major differences between the religious affiliation for the population of South Metropolitan Region and Armadale were:
- A larger percentage who nominated Western (Roman) Catholic (19.5% compared to 13.6%)
- A larger percentage who nominated Buddhism (2.8% compared to 1.5%)
- A smaller percentage who nominated Christian,nfd (3.5% compared to 5.1%)
- A smaller percentage who nominated Presbyterian and Reformed (1.5% compared to 2.8%)
Emerging groups
The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in South Metropolitan Region between 2016 and 2021 were for those who nominated:
- Anglican (-19,705 persons)
- Hinduism (+6,525 persons)
- Islam (+6,246 persons)
- Christian,nfd (+4,568 persons)
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