Australia’s Changing Religious Profile—Rising Nones and Pentecostals, Declining British Protestants in Superdiversity: Views from the 2016 Census
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.34826Keywords:
Religious diversity, Religious 'nones', superdiversity, youth and religionAbstract
The 2016 Australian Census reveals continued change in Australia’s religious diversity. While reviewing some of the highlights of this development–the continuing increase in the ‘no religion’ category, the first ever decline in Catholic numbers, and the rise of Hindus and Sikhs–several religious groups, which are not usually combined in the census, actually when grouped together represent most of the Pentecostal and charismatic churches and form the fourth largest religious group in Australia. These changes are set in a comparative context, internationally and intergenerationally. The religious diversity and Anglican retention rates of Stonnington–one of Melbourne’s 21 Cities–are examined as a window on local diversity and change. Finally, we discuss three main categories of religion in contemporary Australia: the ‘nones’; the spiritual but not religious; and the religious and spiritual. The data reveal a new context of superdiversity in Australia.
Open access: Attribution—Non Commercial—NoDerivs / CC BY-NC-ND
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Woodhead, Linda. 2016a. The Rise of ‘No Religion’ in Britain: The Emergence of a New Cultural Majority. Journal of the British Academy 4: 245-61.
Woodhead, Linda. 2016b. Is No Religion the New Religion? Paper read at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Seattle, WA, USA.
Barna. 2013. Why You Don’t Attend Church. Online: www.barna.org.frames/methodology/; https://au.pinterest.com/pin/339951471846949476/.
Bell, Diane. 2009. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Religions. In Jupp 2009c: 69-96.
Bouma, Gary. 2006.. Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the 21st Century. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Bouma, Gary. 2011. Being Faithful in Diversity: Religions and Social Policy in MultiFaith Societies. Australasian Theological Forum, Adelaide.
Bouma, Gary. 2012. Beyond Reasonable Accommodation: The Case of Australia. In Reasonable Accommodation: Managing Religious Diversity, edited by L. Beaman, 139-64. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver.
Bouma, Gary. 2014. What Happened to British Protestants? In Re-imagining Church: Positive Ministry Responses to the Age of Experience, by G. Rose, P. Hughes and G. Bouma, 5-18. Christian Research Association, Melbourne.
Bouma, Gary. 2016. The Role of Demographic and Socio-cultural Factors in Australia’s Successful Multicultural Society: How Australia Is Not Europe. The Journal of Sociology 52: 750-71.
Bouma, Gary, and Beverly Dixon. 1986. The Religious Factor in Australian Life. MARC, Melbourne.
Brown, Andrew, and Linda Woodhead. 2016. That Was The Church That Was? How the Church of England Lost the English People. Bloomsbury, London.
Cahill, Des, and Peter Wilkinson. 2017. Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: An Interpretive Review of the Literature and Public Inquiry Reports. RMIT Centre for Global Research, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, Melbourne.
Carey, Hilary. 1996. Believing in Australia: A Cultural History of Religions. Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Carey, Hilary. 2009. An Historical Outline of Religion in Australia. In Jupp 2009c: 5-21.
Croucher, Paul. 1989. Buddhism in Australia, 1848–1988. New South Wales University Press, Kensington.
Cusack, Carole. 2011. Some Recent Trends in the Study of Religion and Youth. Journal of Religious History 35(3): 409-18. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9809.2011.01078.x.
Dixon, Robert. 2005. The Catholic Community in Australia. Openbook Publishers, Adelaide, rev. edn.
Dixon, Robert. 2016. The Catholic Community in Australia: A Pro?le by Dr Bob Dixon. Online: http://catholicschoolsguide.com.au/catholic-education-featured-articles/faith-and-spirituality/the-catholic-community-in-australia/.
Frappell, Ruth. 2002. Imperial Fervour and Anglican Loyalty 1901–1929. In Anglicanism in Australia: A History, edited by Bruce Kaye, 76-99. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
Ganter, Regina. 2008. Muslim Australians: The Deep Histories of Contact. Journal of Australian Studies 32: 481-92. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14443050802471384.
Halafoff, Anna. 2013. The Multifaith Movement: Global Risks and Cosmopolitan Solutions. Springer, Dordrecht.
Halafoff, Anna, and Laura Gobey forthcoming. ‘Whatever’? Religion, Youth, and Identity in 21st Century Australia. In Youth, Religion and Identity, edited by Peter Beyer, Spencer Bullivant and Paul Gareau. Brill, Leiden.
Hilliard, David. 2002. Pluralism and New Alignments in Society and Church 1967 to the Present. In Anglicanism in Australia: A History, edited by Bruce Kaye, 124-49. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
Hogan, Michael. 1987. The Sectarian Strand: Religion in Australian History. Penguin, Melbourne.
Jupp, James. 2009a. Religion, Immigration and Refugees. In Jupp 2009c: 645-54.
Jupp, James. 2009b. Ethnic Variety and Origins. In Jupp 2009c: 53-68.
Jupp, James (ed.). 2009c. The Encyclopedia of Religion in Australia. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Maddox, Marion. 2014. Taking God To School. Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Maddox, Marion. 2005. God Under Howard. Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Markus, Andrew. 2016. Mapping Social Cohesion: The Scanlon Foundation Surveys 2016. Monash University, ACJC, Melbourne.
Mason, Michael, Andrew Singleton, and Ruth Webber. 2007. The Spirit of Generation Y: Young People’s Spirituality in a Changing Australia. John Garratt, Melbourne.
McGuire, Meredith. 2008. Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. Oxford University Press, New York.
Pew (Pew Research Centre). 2012. The Global Religious Landscape: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010. Pew, Washington DC. Online: http://www.pewforum.org/global-religious-landscape.aspx.
Porter, Muriel. 2011. Sydney Anglicans and the Threat to World Anglicanism: The Sydney Experiment. Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, UK.
Possamai, Adam. 2009. Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y. Equinox, London.
Stolz, Joerg, Judith Konemann, Mallory Schneuwly Purdie, Thomas Engleberger and Michael Kruggeler. 2017. (Un)Believing in Modern Society: Religion, Spirituality, and Religious-Secular Competition. Routledge, London.
Vertovec, Steven. 2007. Super-diversity and its Implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(6): 1024–54. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701599465.
Woodhead, Linda. 2016a. The Rise of ‘No Religion’ in Britain: The Emergence of a New Cultural Majority. Journal of the British Academy 4: 245-61.
Woodhead, Linda. 2016b. Is No Religion the New Religion? Paper read at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Seattle, WA, USA.
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2017-11-22
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Equinox Publishing Ltd.
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Bouma, G. D., & Halafoff, A. (2017). Australia’s Changing Religious Profile—Rising Nones and Pentecostals, Declining British Protestants in Superdiversity: Views from the 2016 Census. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 30(2), 129-143. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.34826
