Demographics of Canada - Religions

Religions

See also: Religion in Canada
Top Self-Identified Religious Affiliations in Canada
1991
number		 1991
%		 2001
number		 2001
%		 % change
(in numbers)
Christian 22,468,260 83 22,799,645 77 -1.5
- Catholic 12,335,255 45.7 12,936,905 43.6 +4.8
- Protestant 9,427,675 34.9 8,654,850 29.2 -8.2
- United Church of Canada 3,093,120 11.3 2,839,125 9.5 -8.2
- Anglican Church of Canada 2,188,110 8.0 2,035,495 6.8 -7.0
- Baptist 663,360 2.4 729,475 2.4 +10.0
- Lutheran 636,205 2.3 606,590 2.0 -4.7
- Presbyterian 636,295 2.3 409,830 1.4 -35.6
- Pentecostal 436,435 1.6 369,475 1.2 -15.3
- Mennonite 207,970 0.8 191,465 0.6 -7.9
- Jehovah's Witnesses 168,375 0.6 154,745 0.5 -8.1
- Methodist 83,910 0.3 106,545 0.4 +27.0
- Mormon 100,770 0.4 104,750 0.3 +3.9
- Salvation Army 112,345 0.4 87,785 0.3 -21.9
- Christian Reformed Church in North America 84,685 0.3 76,665 0.3 -9.5
- Christian and Missionary Alliance 59,365 0.2 66,280 0.2 +11.9
- Adventists 52,365 0.2 62,875 0.2 +20.1
- Christian Orthodox 387,395 1.4 479,620 1.6 +23.8
- Greek Orthodox 231,965 0.9 215,200 0.7 -7.1
- Christian, not included elsewhere¹ 353,040 1.3 780,450 2.6 +121.1
Other 1,148,060 4.3 1,988,635 6.7 +73.2
- Jewish 318,185 1.2 329,995 1.1 +3.7
- Muslim 253,265 0.9 579,640 2.0 +128.9
- Buddhist 163,415 0.6 300,345 1.0 +83.8
- Hindu 157,015 0.6 297,200 1.0 +89.3
- Sikh 147,440 0.5 278,410 0.9 +88.8
No religion 3,397,000 12.6 4,900,095 16.5 +44.2
¹ Includes persons who report only "Christian", only "Protestant", and those in denominations less than 60,000
* For comparability purposes, 1991 data are presented according to 2001 boundaries.

Note(s):

  • Catholic includes Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Polish National Catholic Church, and Old Catholic
  • Other Religions also includes Bahá'í Faith, Eckankar, Jainism, Shinto, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Aboriginal belief systems, Neo-Paganism, Wicca, Unity - New Thought - Pantheist, Scientology, Rastafari movement, New Age, Gnostic, Satanism, et cetera
  • No Religion includes Atheism, Agnosticism, Humanism, et cetera

However, a more recent research in 2005 indicates that the non-religious group has risen significantly. Phil Zuckerman, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College writes of several academic sources who have in recent years placed atheism rates in Canada between 19% and 30%.

Read more about this topic:  Demographics Of Canada

Famous quotes containing the word religions:

    “All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate.”
    —Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)

    “Those who believe in their truth—the only ones whose imprint is retained by the memory of men—leave the earth behind them strewn with corpses. Religions number in their ledgers more murders than the bloodiest tyrannies account for, and those whom humanity has called divine far surpass the most conscientious murderers in their thirst for slaughter.”
    —E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)

    “The ancients adorned their sarcophagi with the emblems of life and procreation, and even with obscene symbols; in the religions of antiquity the sacred and the obscene often lay very close together. These men knew how to pay homage to death. For death is worthy of homage as the cradle of life, as the womb of palingenesis.”
    —Thomas Mann (1875–1955)