Publication
Sydney Morning Herald
Release Date
Australia has become strikingly more godless over the past decade, with the latest census data showing the proportion of self-identified Christians dropping below 50% for the first time and a soaring number of people describing themselves as “non-religious.” The first tranche of data from the 2021 census, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday, shows that just 44% of Australians now identify as Christian, down from 52% five years earlier and 61% in 2011. The proportion of Australians identifying as Catholic declined from 23 to 20% over the past five years while self-identified Anglicans dropped from 13 to 10%.