How has immigration changed the religious landscape of Australia? What will the 2011 Census reveal about the religious observance in Australia?
The results of the 2011 census were released on Thursday (21 June) and they’re likely to show big changes in Australia’s religious landscape. One question is intriguing the experts: What impact has recent immigration had on religious diversity? In the past five years, there’s been a huge increase in the number of immigrants coming from India, for example, and that’s almost certain to mean a big jump in the number of Australians identifying as Hindu.
Professor Andrew Jakubowicz, a demographer and sociologist from the University of Technology, Sydney, has been crunching some numbers ahead of the census release and predicts three big changes in religious observance.
Andrew West of the ABC’s Religion and Ethics Report explored questions about the religious landscape in Australia with Professor Andrew Jakubowicz. The conversation explores changes in Australian population – the religion of Australian born children of immigrants, and the major shift showing that 9% of the population is likely to be non-Christian and rapidly growing. This is likely to have impact on social and moral issues which are traditionally explored and resolved from a Judeao-Christian point of view. The impact of pluralities in religion is likely to be encountered in telling ways in the national conversation in the near future.
You can listen to this interview on the ABC Religion and Ethics website. A transcript of the interview is also available.
