Tue 10 Mar 2009
Here are some facts, according to Bellamy and Castle’s* reading of 2001 ABS Census 1996 and 2001 National Church Life Surveys:
About half of church attenders in participating denominations are Catholic. There are some Protestant and Pentecostal churches that didn’t take part in the survey, accounting for around 137 000 attenders. Eastern orthodox and non-trinitarian groups (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter Day Saints) not included.
Decline in mainstream Protestant churches – Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Uniting – offset by increases in attendance in other Protestant and Pentecostal churches, but not enough to counter the decline in Catholic church. Therefore attendance dropped overall by 7% between 1996-2001. Decline of just 2% in Anglican is masked by fact that Sydney diocese experienced “significant” growth.
|
Denomination |
% Change since 1996 | % Change since 1991 |
|
Anglican |
-2 |
-7 |
|
Apostolic |
20 |
32 |
|
AOG |
20 |
30 |
|
Baptist |
8 |
9 |
|
Christian & Missionary Alliance |
Na |
46 |
|
Christian City Churches |
42 |
Na |
| Christian Revival Crusade |
-7 |
12 |
|
Church of the Nazarene |
33 |
33 |
|
Lutheran |
-8 |
-18 |
| Presbyterian |
-3 |
-1 |
| Reformed |
-1 |
-15 |
| Salvation Army |
-7 |
1 |
| Uniting |
-11 |
-22 |
| Vineyard | -17 | Na |
| Wesleyan Methodist |
-7 |
9 |
| Total |
1 |
-3 |
| Catholic | -13 | Na |
| Total |
-7 |
na |
8.8% of population are weekly church attenders in 2001. We see that this is a decline from 9.9% in 1996. Due to decreased church attendance plus a population growth of 6%.
1998 Australian Community Survey found that 20% of the population claimed at least monthly attendance. The 2002 release showed the figure fell to 18.6%.
Comparison with census identification: overall census identification fell from 71% in 1996 to 68% in 2001. Percentage of weekly attendance over census identification in 2001: Anglican 5%, Uniting 10%, Baptist 36%, Churches of Christ 74%, Salvation Army 39%. These figures haven’t changed much since 1996, except for Churches of Christ, where there’s an increase of 18%. This may be due to falling census identification coupled with increases in weekly attendance.
It’s noted that a number of Pentecostal congregations had actually changed denominations between 1996 and 2001.
Anglican (9%), Lutheran (5%), Presbyterian (8%) Salvation Army (2%) and Uniting (22%) decreased number of congregations in Australia between 1991-2001. the large figure for Uniting must take into account that the definition of “congregation”. Other Protestant and Pentecostal rose in the number of congregations: Apostolic 67%, AOG 37%, Church of the Nazarene 27%, Vineyard 60% (since 1996, 1991 figures not available), Wesleyan 32%.
*Bellamy, J. and K. Castle (2004). NCLS Occasional Paper 3: 2001 Church Attendance Estimates. Sydney, NCLS.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:59
Paul: Great to see you quoting statistics about attendance change in the churches. I have a small correction: the data is not sourced from the 2001 ABS Census but rather from National Church Life Surveys from 1991 to 2001. NCLS undertook a lengthy and detailed data gathering process to arrive at the figures that you have in this table – it would be the best comparative data that we have of trends in attendance by denomination in Australia.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:27
Hey John,
My Bad. Sorry. I’ve updated it.
March 13th, 2009 at 13:38
If that is true about the Sydney Anglican diocese I am seriously worried about the state of the state, not to mention the nation. Say it isn’t so! (Maybe it’s gone down again since 2001 – it’s nearly ten years ago, after all…)
March 13th, 2009 at 14:07
Firstly may I say how rude of me to title this post “Religion in Australia” when clearly the stats are only about one religion. I have changed the title to rectify the brutal and ethnocentric error.
Secondly, M-H, I wouldn’t be worried in the slightest. Sydney Anglicanism is just a big fish in a pond that’s getting smaller and smaller, and we can walk alongside and over it as though it weren’t even there.