- Thursday, March 13, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
AUSTRALIA is seeing a major shift in its religious, demographic and cultural character, the country’s 2021 census has confirmed.
It is for the first time in the history that in Australia, those who identify themselves as Christians, have now reduced into a minority with just 44 per cent, a decline of more than 15 per cent in just five years, according to NRI Affairs website. In 1971, a whopping 86 per cent of Australians identified themselves as Christians.
While lesser people are identifying themselves as Christians, more are reporting ‘no religion’. As per the 2021 census, nearly 40 per cent of Australia’s population reported to having no religion, an increase from 30 per cent in 2016 and 22 per cent in 2011.
Other religions continue to grow in Australia though they still make a small proportion of the overall population. Hinduism, for instance, has witnessed a growth by 55.3 per cent to 684,002 people or 2.7 per cent of the population. Islam has grown to 813,392 people or 3.2 per cent while Sikhism has seen a growth of more than 66 per cent to 210,400 since 2016.
According to the NRI Affairs website, the trend of an increase in ‘Other religions’ and ‘no religion’ among the Australians is reflected in the religious affiliation of migrants who arrived to the continent-state since the last census.
Last year, more than 2.5 million people in Australia reported an affiliation with ‘Other religions’, marking an increase of more than 600,000 since 2016.
In 2021, the main religions in ‘Other religion’ in Australia were Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.
While the rise in Buddhist people in Australia has been caused by a steady migration from Southeast Asia, China and Sri Lanka, most of the Hindu migrants came from India and Nepal. Almost all of the Sikh migrants reaching Australia were from India while the rise in Islamic affiliation can be attributed to migration from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Bangladesh.
