July 4, 2013
Canada still Predominantly Catholic and Protestant but You'd Never Know it from What Governments Do From the June-July Issue of REALITY, publication of Real Women of Canada
A majority of close to eight in ten Canadians (76%) continue to identify with a religion, ... the dominant identification group continues to be Christian (67%) with Roman Catholics taking the lead at 39% of Canadians.
In May, 2013, when Statistics Canada released the results of the National Household Survey, the mainstream media made its usual claims about the demise of religion, claiming Canada was moving from a pro-religious society to a non- religious society.
This is not the case. As in previous census measures of religion in Canada, the National Household Survey asked Canadians to indicate their religion in order to determine which people identify with a specific denomination or religion. However, there was an important, explicit qualifier: respondents were asked which religion he/she identified even if this person is not currently a practising member of that group. That is, the question in no way attempted to probe participation or belief.
The National Household Survey made two primary findings on religion:
1. A majority of close to eight in ten Canadians (76%) continue to identify with a religion, while a growing minority--now 24% up from 16% in 2001--do not. As we said, the dominant identification group continues to be Christian (67%) with Roman Catholics taking the lead at 39% of Canadians.
2. Immigration has been the primary source of other major world faiths in this country, up 7% from 5% in 2001.
It is significant that a recent General Social Survey found that between 2005 and 2010, 50% of immigrants arrive as either Roman Catholics or Protestants, while 35% are adherents of other major world faiths, and 15% have no religion.
The percentage of immigrants of the Muslim faith has grown from 2% in 2001 to 3% over the past decade. According to Statistics Canada in 2011, 1,053,945 or 3.2% of the Canadian population is of the Muslim faith.
Despite this growth in religion in Canada, a number of mainline Protestant groups are still experiencing significant declines, primarily because of aging and slow or no growth. For example, in 1931, 20% of Canadians identified themselves as members of the United Church (The United Church was formed by the amalgamation of three Protestant churches in 1926), and 16% identified themselves as Anglican. Today, these figures have fallen to 6% and 5%, respectively.
It is important to note when one looks only at Canadian-born men between 25 and 35 years of age, i.e: excluding immigrants, 38% report having no religion. This is a big change from 1971 when just 4% of 24 to 36 year old Canadian-born males indicated "no religion" on their census forms.
Why the change? According to Harvard political scientist, Robert Putnam, it may be because of geographic mobility, which strains the bonds of community, and the lure of technology, which pulls us away from traditional social institutions. This loss of faith by young men, as mentioned above, has, at least, been offset by immigration.
It is interesting that only 0.15% of those filling out the census forms described themselves as atheists.

