Australia Yearbook - 2009-10

%
80
60
40
20
S7.6
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION(a),
By proportion of total population—1986, 1996 and 2006
1986
1996
2006
0
Christian Non-Christian No religion Not stated/
Inadequately described
(a) Religious affiliation is coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Religious Groups,
Second Edition.
Source: ABS data available on request, Census of Population and Housing 1986, 1996, 2006.
%
40
30
20
10
S7.7 NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION(a),
By proportion of non-Christian religions—1986, 1996 and 2006
1986
1996
2006
0
Buddhism Hinduism Judaism Islam Other non-Christian
(a) Religious affiliation is coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Religious Groups,
Second Edition.
Source: ABS data available on request, Census of Population and Housing 1986, 1996, 2006.
Australia's three most common non-Christian
religious affiliations were Buddhism (2% of all
persons), Islam (2%) and Hinduism (1%). Of
these groups, Hinduism experienced the fastest
proportional growth since 1986, more than
doubling each decade to over 148,100,
followed by Buddhism which doubled each
decade to almost 418,800 affiliates.
Whilst Christianity remained the dominant
religion in Australia over the twenty-year
period, Christian denominations generally had
smaller proportional changes in the numbers of
affiliates than the non-Christian religions. The
proportion of Christians in the total population
fell from 73% in 1986 to 64% in 2006, while in
the same period non-Christian religions,
increased from 2% of the total population in
1986 to 6% in 2006. The number of Australian
residents who have stated no religion increased
from 13% in 1986 to 19% in 2006 (graph S7.6).
Since 1986, non-Christian religions have grown
at very high rates and collectively account for
6% of the total population in 2006 (1.1 million
people). Over the twenty-year period,
Buddhism experienced large rates of growth
and in 2006 represented the largest group of
non-Christian religions, overtaking affiliation
with Islam which was the largest group in both
1986 and 1996 Censuses (graph S7.7). Notably,
Hinduism affiliation experienced the largest
rate of growth (from a small base) of all
religions (590%) between 1986 and 2006 (table
S7.5).
Chapter 7 — Population 225