According to data from the 2021 census that was just made public, a majority of Australians do not identify as Christians. This maintains a trend of sharp declines in Christian affiliation at the census, which have fallen from 74% in 1991 to 61% in 2011, to 52% in 2016, to now at 44%. What is happening?

ABC News reported that in Australia, there has always been a significant disconnect between Christian identification and Christian practise!

Even accounting for those who go to services less often, a good deal of Christian identification in Australia is essentially cultural. Many Australians identify with the churches of their parents or grandparents. About one in five children attend Catholic schools, and Catholicism connects some of the country’s largest migrant groups with their cultural heritage. The Anglican Church’s connections to the British Empire gave it an important role in Australia’s historical identity.

Surveys do not indicate huge drops in religious activity in recent years. The World Values Survey shows a modest decline in Australian regular service attendance from 14 to 13 per cent since 2005. Some Christian groups such as Pentecostals are enjoying considerable growth, and according to the NCLS overall service attendance has slightly increased since 2016.

Instead, it seems likely that increasing numbers of religiously uninvolved Australians no longer identify in the census with the Christianity of their family backgrounds, while many younger people are entering the census with no such backgrounds to begin with.

Australians indicating “no religion” in the census are now 39 per cent of the population, up from 22 per cent in 2011 and 30 per cent in 2016. The rapid growth in religious “nones” is not just an Australian phenomenon.

What do you think it means?