An ABC News article written by Markus Mannheim and posted on 28 June 2022.
The link to the article itself:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-28/census-2021-data-shows-a-changed-australia/101177152
A few comments:
- The 2021 Australian Census results were published last week
- Australia’s population exceeded 25 million for the first time
- The religious statistics are the most fascinating, as we see an increase in the decline of Christianity while it still remains the biggest religion
- Over the last 10 years, from the 2011 census to the 2021 census:
- Christians declined from 61.1% of the population to 43.9%
- At the same time people without any religion increased from 22.3% to 38.9%
- If this trend is sustained people without religion will exceed any specific religion by the 2026 census. And since this trend is accelerating, it seems likely
- The Australia Bureau of Statistics also published a very interesting long-term graph:
- For a relatively secular country (and one continuing to secularize at quite a rate)
- It is surprising that the country had a Religious Right government with an Evangelical Prime Minister (Scott Morrison), until about 6 weeks ago
- It is also surprising that this Prime Minister pushed so hard (unsuccessfully) to introduce religious discrimination legislation, which would have allowed Christians to legally discriminate against others
- You can read our CSF Article about this proposed legislation here: https://thecsf.xyz/special-feature-the-proposed-australian-religious-discrimination-bill/
- It is no surprise that the Morrison government decisively lost the recent Federal Election
- We will follow up with related CSF Articles about “The Secrets of Christianity’s Success” (on 15 July), and “The End of Christianity” (not scheduled yet).