The Persistence Of Religion: What The Census Tells Us
Over the past decade, the total number of Australians identifying with a religion has risen from 13.7 million to 14.7 million in 2011. However, the population has grown faster than this, which means that the total proportion of Australians identifying with a religion has declined a little. Between 2001 and 2006, there was a decline of 3.3 per cent in the proportions of Australians identifying with a religion. Between 2006 and 2011, that change was just 1.2 percentage points (a decline from 69.5 per to 68.3 per cent of Australians). In an age in which there is increasing realisation among people that they can choose whether to identify with a religion, the large majority (almost 70 per cent) of Australians continue to make that identification and this is just 1.2 percentage points less than in 2006. The imminent demise of religion has been very much exaggerated.