Census shows while secularism is growing faster than any religion, young people are behind boost in membership of Pentecostal church

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

As the number of Australians who identify as Christian has declined since 2011, one church has notably bucked the trend.

Members of the Pentecostal church increased from nearly 220,000 in 2006 and 238,000 in 2011 to 260,500 last year, according to the 2016 census results released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

It has grown particularly among young people, with increases in the 0-14 (the largest share of affiliates), 15-24 and 25-34 age profiles recorded in each census from 2006.



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Associate professor Ann Evans of the Australian National University’s school of demography, said the rise, while not huge, was notable.

“Modern Pentecostal churches are actually very appealing to a wide demographic of young people – they have a very strong social element, and very dynamic and engaging services,” she said. “They’re like going to a concert for young people.”

Among the 0-14 age group would be the children of Pentecostal church members, she said.

One of the best-known Pentecostal churches in the world is Australia’s “megachurch” Hillsong, which has expanded to 69 services in 27 locations across the country and several international offshoots since it was founded in New South Wales in 1983.

In its 2016 annual report, released in February, Hillsong said weekly church attendance grew to 37,384 people last year. Revenue grew by 16% to nearly $131m, up from about $113m in 2015; more than half came from donations.

Pop star Justin Bieber is one of its highest-profile acolytes, with the mohawked “rock star preacher” Carl Lentz – who spoke of bringing Bieber to salvation in GQ in December 2015 – shadowing him on his tour of Australia in March.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Carl Lentz leads a Hillsong church service in New York in 2013. Photograph: Tina Fineberg/AP

“It is the style of those churches that really appeal to a very youthful audience – they have youthful ministers, who provide a lot of support for young people who might be struggling to find their way, in their early 20s in particular,” Evans said.

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The number of Australians identifying their religion as Assyrian Apostolic, Church of Latter-day Saints, Oriental Orthodox, “other Protestant” and Christian of no fixed denomination also increased between 2006 and 2011, and again between 2011 and 2016.

But across all denominations, the total number of self-identified Christians has fallen from 13.1m (61%) to 12.2m (52%) in the past five years, with nearly 600,000 fewer Anglicans and nearly 147,500 fewer Catholics reported in 2016 compared with 2011. In the 1911 census, 96% of Australians recorded themselves as Christian.

Last year’s census paints a picture of an Australia that is simultaneously less religious and more religiously diverse, in part because of increased migration from non-European countries.

For the first time, the number of people who identified as secular (30%) eclipsed the number who identified as any particular religion. The proportion of Catholics fell to 23% (from 25.3% in 2011), though Catholicism remained the largest religious affiliation at nearly 5.3m people.

Just over 8% of the population identified as having a religion other than Christianity, up from 7.2% in 2011, with 2.6% Muslim, 2.4% Buddhist and 1.9% Hindu. Islam has overtaken Buddhism since the 2011 census.

Sikhism, Judaism and “other” each recorded 0.5% or lower. Just over 8,000 people identified themselves as having Australian Aboriginal traditional religions.

Evans said multiculturalism in Australia was “broadening the types of religions visible in the census”.

But growth in non-Christian religions was not entirely down to migration. More than a third (36%) of Australians who reported being affiliated with Islam in 2016 were born in Australia. Judaism had a higher Australian-born population than overseas-born (53% compared with 47%).

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Those born in Australia were more likely to indicate they had no religion than those born overseas (34% compared with 27%).

Secularism is growing faster than any religion, continuing a trend established since 1966, when only 0.8% of respondents said they had no religion.

The ABS said the number of Australians stating they had no religion had beeen increasing “steadily and substantially”, with 30% of Australians professing no religion in 2016, up from 22% five years ago and 16% in 2001.

Non-religious Australians tended to be younger, with 39% of 18- to 34-year-olds reporting no religion compared with 16% of those 65 and over. Below the age of 25, men and women were just as likely to report having no religion, but from 25 up men were increasingly more likely to do so than women.

Young adults were also more likely to be affiliated with religions other than Christianity (12%). Older people, particularly those aged 65 years and over, were most likely to report belonging to one of the Christian denominations (70%).