Irreligion in Australia

Major religious affiliations in Australia by census year. In 1971 the instruction "if no religion, write none" was introduced.

Atheism, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general secularism is increasing in Australia. Australia is a highly secularised country with the proportion of people identifying themselves as Christian declining from 96% in 1901 to 64% in 2006 and those who did not state their religion or declared no religion rising from 2% to over 30% over the same period.

The 2006 census indicated 18.7% or 3,706,555 people self-described as having "no religion" - a rise of three percentage points since the 2001 census. It saw the largest increase in numbers of 800,557 people. Answering the Census question on religious affiliation was optional and a further 2.4 million (11.9%) did not state their religion (or inadequately described it). Thus approximately 30% of Australians did not state a religious affiliation in the 2006 census.

History

Prior to European settlement, the Aboriginal Australians followed a variety of religions involving the worship of spirits of nature.

European settlement brought with it the predominantly Christian religions in the 1800s.

Since the 1901 census, the "No Religion" percentage of the population has grown from 0.4% of the population to just over a quarter of the population. It should be noted that this question has been emphasised as optional since 1933. In 1971 a further clarification was made instructing "If no religion, write none" which saw "a seven-fold increase" in the figures from previous years for those declaring lack of religious beliefs.

Summary of the major religious affiliations (or lack of affiliation) at each Census since 1901

Census year	No religion  %	Not stated/ inadequately described  %	persons who either stated they had no religion, or did not adequately respond to the question to enable classification of their religion  %	Total Christian  %	Religions other than Christianity  %	Total population counted '000
1901	0.4	2.0	2.4	96.1	1.4	3 773.8
1911	0.4	2.9	3.3	95.9	0.8	4 455.0
1921	0.5	1.9	2.4	96.9	0.7	5 435.7
1933	0.2	12.9	13.1	86.4	0.4	6 629.8
1947	0.3	11.1	11.4	88.0	0.5	7 579.4
1954	0.3	9.7	10.0	89.4	0.6	8 986.5
1961	0.4	10.7	11.1	88.3	0.7	10 508.2
1966	0.8	10.3	11.1	88.2	0.7	11 599.5
1971	6.7	6.2	12.9	86.2	0.8	12 755.6
1976	8.3	11.4	19.7	78.6	1.0	13 548.4
1981	10.8	11.4	22.2	76.4	1.4	14 576.3
1986	12.7	12.4	25.1	73.0	2.0	15 602.2
1991	12.9	10.5	23.4	74.0	2.6	16 850.3
1996	16.6	9.0	25.6	70.9	3.5	17 752.8
2001	15.5	11.7	27.2	68.0	4.9	18 769.2
2006	18.7	11.9	30.8	63.9	5.6	19 855.3

• Notes:
  • 1901, 1911, 1921 figures for "Not stated/ inadequately described" included responses that were 'object to state'.
  • A question on religious affiliation has been asked in every Census taken in Australia, but the voluntary nature of this question has only been specifically stated since 1933.
  • In 1971 the instruction 'if no religion, write none' was introduced. In that census there was a seven-fold increase from the previous Census year in the proportion of persons stating they had no religion.

Irreligion in politics

Australians tend to be very suspcious of religion being intertwined with politics. Critic and commentator Robert Hughes stated "Any Australian political candidate who declared God was on his side would be laughed off the podium as an idiot or a wowser (prude, intrusive bluenose)." Conversely, Australia has had many openly atheist or agnostic political figures elected to high positions, including prime ministers Gough Whitlam, John Curtin and Bob Hawke, premiers Anna Bligh, Carmen Lawrence and Alan Carpenter, and govenor-general Bill Hayden.

Polls, surveys and statistics

Although many Australians identify themselves as religious, the majority consider religion the least important aspect of their lives when compared with family, partners, work and career, leisure time and politics. This is reflected in Australia's church attendance rates, which are among the lowest in the world and in continuing decline.

• In a 2008 global Gallup poll, nearly 70% of Australians stated religion as having no importance, much higher than their American counterparts, and on par with similarly secular countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Finland, and France. Only a few Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and post-Soviet states (Estonia) are markedly less religious.

• The Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian newspaper with a conservative viewpoint, asked its readers "Would the world be better off without religion?". 81% responded in the affirmative.

• A 2008 Christian Science Monitor survey of 17 countries reported that youth from Australia and the United Kingdom were the least likely to observe religious practice or see any "spiritual dimension" to life.

• Secular marriages are growing increasingly popular in Australia. In 2007, 62.9 per cent of marriages were celebrated by civil celebrants. This was up from 61.4% in 2006, 56.6% in 2003, 49.5% in 1998 and 41.3% in 1988.

See also

• Religion in Australia
• Rationalist Society of Australia
• The Secular Party of Australia
• Atheist Foundation of Australia
• Council of Australian Humanist Societies
• Australian Skeptics
• Irreligion
• Religious skepticism
• Secular humanism