Religious affiliation in Australia (2024)

FAQs

What are the religious affiliations of the Australian population? ›

The 2021 census recorded over 100 different religious affiliations in Australia. Approximately 52.1% identified as Christian, constituting the largest religious category. The Catholic Church (20.0%) and Anglican Church (9.8%) were the two largest Christian denominations identified.

Christianity is the largest religion in Australia, with a total of 43.9% of the nation-wide population identifying with a Christian denomination in the 2021 census.

2.3 Australia is not a theocratic state, nor does it have an official national religion.

But Christianity is on the decline in Australia. The number of people affiliated with Christianity decreased from 12.2 million (52.1%) in 2016 to 11.1 million (43.9%) in 2021.

Hinduism is the third largest religion in Australia consisting of more than 684,002 followers, making up 2.7% of the population as of the 2021 census. Hinduism is the fastest growing religion in Australia mostly through immigration.

The rapid growth in religious “nones” is not just an Australian phenomenon. Although the United States has much higher levels of religious devotion than Australia, American survey data also shows a rise in religious non-affiliation mirroring a fall in Christian identification.

Atheism, agnosticism, scepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general irreligion are increasing in Australia. Post-war Australia has become a highly secularised country. Religion does not play a major role in the lives of much of the population.

According to the same study Christianity, is expected to lose a net of 66 million adherents (40 million converts versus 106 million apostate) mostly to religiously unaffiliated category between 2010 and 2050. It is also expected that Christianity may have the largest net losses in terms of religious conversion.

Majority believe in God

The most common category for Australians' belief in God is that they are believers, who believe now and always have (47%) and second are non-believers who don't believe in God and never have (26%).

Is there freedom of religion in Australia? ›

The state of Tasmania is the only state or territory whose constitution specifically provides citizens with the right to profess and practice their religion. In Queensland, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory, freedom of religion is protected in statutory human rights charters.

Australians are fleeing faith at a record pace as Christianity declines and secularism takes hold, but religion is growing faster than ever in Victoria's Pentecostal megachurches, temples and mosques.

If there is a happy eternal life it's for everyone ... For many Australians the pleasures of this life are sufficiently satisfying that religion offers nothing of great appeal", said Horne in his landmark work The Lucky Country (1964). The 2021 census found that 38.9% of Australian-born Australians claim no religion.

Description. Planetshakers Church is an evangelical Pentacostal Church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches (Assemblies of God), and one of the fastest-growing churches in Australia. It has multiple church campuses in Melbourne and others around the world, including in Cape Town, South Africa; and Singapore.

The number of people who identify as Christian has been in decline since Federation; 96 per cent identified as Christian in 1911, but this fell to 61 per cent in 2011. Meanwhile only 7.2 per cent of the population identifies with a non-Christian faith, including Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism.