New Statistics from Canada Reveal Over Half the Population is Christian with Catholicism in the Majority with a Decline of 2 Million Catholics

 The government of Canada recently released its 2021 census. The latest statistics, reveal that the number of Catholics in Canada is now 10.9 million. This is a decline of 2 million from the last census in 2011, but Catholics are still in the majority among the country's Christian denominations. Canada has a total population of 38.25 million people. 

In 2021, over 19.3 million people reported a Christian religion, representing just over half of the Canadian population (53.3%). However, this proportion is down from 67.3% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001.

Approximately 12.6 million people, or more than one-third of Canada's population, reported having no religious affiliation. The proportion of this population has more than doubled in 20 years, going from 16.5% in 2001 to 34.6% in 2021.

International comparisons of religion

According to studies by the Pew Research Center and studies based on other data sources (e.g., World Values Survey), a similar trend is observed in other predominantly Christian countries (United States, Australia and several European countries), namely a decline in Christianity and an increase in other religions and the number of people with no religious affiliation.

For example, the share of the United States population with no religious affiliation rose from 16% in 2007 to 29% in 2021. Data from the 2021 Australian census reveal that 38.9% of the country's population reported no religious affiliation, more than double the rate from 2001 (16.7%).

Another long-standing and ongoing need for diversity data is on religious affiliation. This information has been collected every 10 years since 1871.

The majority of the population is Christian, but their share is decreasing

In 2021, more than 19.3 million people reported a Christian religion, or just over half of the Canadian population (53.3%). However, this percentage is down from 67.3% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001.

Catholics are the largest Christian denomination in Canada, with 10.9 million people (29.9%) in 2021. The United Church (3.3%) and the Anglican Church (3.1%), two other Christian denominations, each had more than 1 million people in Canada. Orthodox Christians (1.7%), Baptists (1.2%), and Pentecostals and other Charismatics (1.1%) were the other Christian denominations most often reported.

In 2021, just under 2.8 million people, or 7.6% of the population, reported being Christian without further indication of a specific denomination, double the figure from 2011 (1.4 million).

With the exception of Orthodox Christians and people who simply reported being Christian, the proportion of affiliation in every Christian denomination decreased from 2011 to 2021.

More than one in three Canadians reported having no religious affiliation

Approximately 12.6 million people, or more than one-third of Canada's population, reported having no religious affiliation or having a secular perspective (atheist, agnostic, humanist and other secular perspectives). The proportion of this population has more than doubled in 20 years, rising from 16.5% in 2001 to 23.9% in 2011 and to 34.6% in 2021.

Immigration alone cannot account for this increase, since 21.5% of immigrants admitted from 2011 to 2021 had no religious affiliation. This proportion is lower than the proportion of the population with no religious affiliation posted in 2011 (23.9%) and 2021 (34.6%). Part of the growth is due to the number of children under 10 who were born in Canada and have no religious affiliation. The number of children under 10 rose by 597,000 (+55.3%) from 2011 to 2021. The main reason for the growth in the population with no religious affiliation is likely related to the fact that many people who reported a religious affiliation in the past now report no religious affiliation. The decline in religious affiliation is consistent with other findings that fewer people reported the importance of religious or spiritual beliefs in their lives, down from 71.0% in 2003 to 54.1% in 2019.

The importance of Christian denominations varies greatly from region to region

The religious portrait varies greatly from one province and territory to another. With the exception of Nunavut, Catholicism is the religious affiliation reported most often in all provinces and territories, representing 29.9% of Canada's population.

Quebec is the only province or territory where more than half the population reported being Catholic (53.8%). However, the proportion of the population who reported being Catholic has fallen considerably over the last 10 years in Quebec, as three-quarters (74.7%) of the Quebec population reported it as their religion in 2011.

People affiliated with the United Church represent larger shares of the population in the Atlantic provinces, namely Newfoundland and Labrador (12.1%), Prince Edward Island (9.7%), Nova Scotia (7.5%), as well as in Saskatchewan (7.4%). In contrast, this Christian denomination represents 3.3% of Canada's population as a whole.

There were higher shares of people who reported the Anglican religion in Nunavut (39.1%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (21.5%), compared with 3.1% for Canada as a whole.

The majority of the population of Yukon and British Columbia reported having no religious affiliation

Yukon and British Columbia stand out with regard to their population reporting no religious affiliation. Close to three in five (59.7%) of Yukon's population and slightly over one-half (52.1%) of British Columbia's population reported no religious affiliation in 2021, compared with 34.6% for Canada as a whole.

Ontario and British Columbia have the largest proportions of the population who reported a religious affiliation other than Christian

In Ontario, 16.3% of the population reported being affiliated with a non-Christian religion, the highest proportion in Canada. In particular, Ontario posted the highest percentage of Muslims (6.7%) and Hindus (4.1%).

British Columbia ranked second among provinces and territories, with a large non-Christian population (13.7%). More specifically, it had the highest proportion of people affiliated with a Sikh religion (5.9%).

Source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026b-eng.htm