Official Statistics for Canada on Religions
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- Published on Sunday, 21 March 2010 13:17
- Written by John Draper
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Statistics Canada has released some statistics on religions in Canada plus projections for 2031. The noticeable projected trends are the drop in Christians (75% to 65%), the increase in non-Christians (7.7% to 14%) and the increase in no religion from 18% to 21%. Some religions are growing - Muslims go from 2.7% to 6.8% and Christian Orthodox plus "other Christians" go from 4.7% to 6.9%. Since Statistics Canada are the people who run the census and provide the government's social statistics, it's probably the most accurate although projections are always susceptible to error.
Religions in Canada
| 2006 | 2031 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| thousands | % | thousands | % | |
| Total | 32,522 | 100.0 | 42,078 | 100.0 |
| Christian religious denominations | 24,340 | 74.8 | 27,285 | 64.8 |
| Catholic | 13,830 | 42.5 | 15,389 | 36.6 |
| Protestant | 8,970 | 27.6 | 8,973 | 21.3 |
| Christian Orthodox | 566 | 1.7 | 978 | 2.3 |
| Other Christians | 974 | 3.0 | 1,944 | 4.6 |
| Non-Christian religious denominations | 2,501 | 7.7 | 6,013 | 14.3 |
| Muslim | 884 | 2.7 | 2,870 | 6.8 |
| Jewish | 348 | 1.1 | 421 | 1.0 |
| Buddhist | 358 | 1.1 | 607 | 1.4 |
| Hindu | 406 | 1.2 | 1,024 | 2.4 |
| Sikh | 384 | 1.2 | 906 | 2.2 |
| Other religions | 122 | 0.4 | 185 | 0.4 |
| No religion | 5,680 | 17.5 | 8,780 | 20.9 |
"Other Christians" includes persons who report "Christian", "Apostolic", "Born-again Christian" and "Evangelical".
Note: 2006 data on religious denomination have been projected from 2001.
Source: Statistics Canada, Demography Division.
In a separate report issued on the same date, Statistics Canada released a graph showing the historical trend in Church attendance. It has been redrawn with identical data to make it more readable - original is here.
Religious attendance rates, by sex, 1985 to 2008
Monthly means attended at least once a month.
As can be seen, Church attendance is steadily declining although there is a reluctance to give up going to Church altogether.
is that they deal with religious affiliation/ practice, and not religious 'feelings' and belief in gods, and spirituality. Other countries polls are more reliable for atheists than Canada's. Living in Yukon, I can't keep count of the number of times I have met people who register as 'no religious affiliation' who are in fact strong believers in woo woo. It's quite depressing, and is a problem with statistics that we atheists should seek to address.