THE first results from the 2011 Australian census suggest that
the number of Australians claiming that they have no religion has
outstripped the number of Anglicans.
The "No religion" category now
represents 22 per cent of the population - a 29-per-cent increase
since 2006. Anglicans, who were once the dominant religious group
in Australia, now make up 17 per cent of the population.
This represents a four-per-cent
decrease over the past ten years.
The Roman Catholic Church remains the
largest religious group, comprising 25 per cent of the population -
a decline of two per cent over ten years.
The figure for Christians, who formed
96 per cent of the Australian population in 1911, is now 61 per
cent, a decline of seven per cent over the past decade. The
fastest-growing religions are Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, which
reflects growth in migration from Asian countries.