Australia has no state religion. In the 2006 census, 64% of Australians listed themselves as Christian, including 26% as Roman Catholic and 19% as Anglican. About 19% of the population cited "No religion" (which includes humanism, atheism, agnosticism, and rationalism), which was the fastest-growing group (refer difference in census 2006 versus census 2001 results) and a further 12% did not answer (the question is optional) or did not give a response adequate for interpretation.
The second largest religion in Australia is Buddhism (2.1%), followed by Islam (1.7%), Hinduism (0.8%) and Judaism (0.5%). Overall, fewer than 6% of Australians identify with non-Christian religions. Weekly attendance at church services in 2004 was about 1.5 million: about 7.5% of the population. Religion does not play a central role in the lives of much of the population, although young adults are somewhat more religious than their elders.
The churches with the largest number of members are the Roman Catholic Church in Australia, the Uniting Church in Australia, and the Anglican Church of Australia. The Pentecostal churches and charismatic movement are also present with megachurches being found in most states (for example, Hillsong Church and Paradise Community Church). The National Council of Churches in Australia is the main Christian ecumenical body.
Hindus are a religious minority in Australia of roughly 150,000 adherents according to the 2006 census. In the 19th century, Hindus first came to Australia to work on cotton and sugar plantations. Many remained as small businessmen, working as camel drivers, merchants and hawkers, selling goods between small rural communities. These days many Hindus are well educated professionals in fields such as medicine, engineering, commerce and information technology. As a community Hindus live relatively peacefully and in harmony with the local populations, and recent times have seen an influx of Hindu students and labourers into Australian society.
The first interaction that Islam had with Australia was through the Muslim fishermen from Makassar in Indonesia who visited North-Western Australia long before 1788. This can be identified from the graves they dug for their comrades who died on the journey, which face Mecca in Arabia in accordance with Islamic regulations concerning burial, as well as evidence from Aboriginal cave paintings and religious ceremonies which depict and incorporate the adoption of Makassan canoe designs and words.
The history of the Jews in Australia began with the transportation of 8 Jewish convicts aboard the First Fleet in 1788 when the first European settlement was established on the continent. Today, an estimated 110,000 Jews reside in Australia, the majority being Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern European descent, with many being refugees and Holocaust survivors who arrived during and after World War II.
According to the Australian census in 2001, Buddhism is the largest non-Christian religion in Australia, with 357,813 adherents, or 1.9% of the total population. It was also the fastest growing religion in terms of percentage, having increased its number of adherents by 79% since the previous census in 1996. Although the first concrete example of Buddhist settlement in Australia was in 1848, there has been speculation from some anthropologists that there may have been contact hundreds of years earlier. In the mid to late 19th century, groups of Buddhists arrived from China, Japan and Sri Lanka. The first instance of a monk in residence in Australia was in the 1970s, and Buddhism gradually grew after that, mainly due to Asian immigration.
Sikhs have been in Australia since the 1830s, initially coming to work as labourers in the cane fields and as cameleers, known as Ghans. At the turn of the century a number of them were working as hawkers, opening up stores. After World War I, Sikhs in Australia were given rights far greater than other Asians and made use of them by emigrating to Australia and working as labourers. As the decades passed they formed a sizable community in Woolgoolga, where the first Gurdwara, named the First Sikh Temple, was built. Following the end of the White Australia Policy there has been a great increase in the number of Sikhs from a number of countries including India, Malaysia, Fiji and the United Kingdom. The 2006 Australian Census shows about 26,500 followers, up from 17,000 in 2001 and 12,000 in 1996.
Australia is one of the least devout nations in the developed world, with religion not described as a central part in many people’s lives. This view is especially prominent among Australia’s youth, who were ranked as the least religious worldwide in a 2008 survey conducted by The Christian Science Monitor. As of 2006, there are 3,706,555 people in Australia with purely secular beliefs, categorised by ABS as "No Religion". This category includes just 4 named sub-categories, namely agnosticism, atheism, Humanism and rationalism. A 5th sub-category is "No Religion, nfd" (nfd=no further definition).
Incoming search terms:
- religion in australia 2006
- Religions in Australia - number of adherents
Canberra