Increasing diversity in religious identification in Australia: comparing 1947, 1991 and 1996 census reports

A comparison of the 1996 census data on religion with that of 1991 reveals a number of trends: the proportion of Australians reporting that they have ‘no religion’ continues to grow; mainstream Christianity, apart from the Catholics, continues to decline as a proportion of the population; and many small religious groups are flourishing. As well as 4.8 million Catholics, 500,000 Orthodox and 201,000 Muslims, Australia has 12,000 Sikhs, 3,000 Taoists, 8,000 Spiritualists and 2,000 Satanists. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s