Religion in Clarence (and Other Stray Observations from the 2021 Census)

In March of this year, a motion was put on notice by Councillor Warren that in its original form¹ would have, among other things, removed the Council Prayer from the agenda. The motion that eventually passed² only moved the Acknowledgement of Country to come first, a compromise designed to placate what was a very divided council. I’d made a deputation at the meeting that night going over the reasons I supported the original motion, and attached a couple of charts for councillors’ perusal.

Fast-forward to the 24^th of November and an agenda document hits my virtual desk, heralding the arrival of another motion, this time by Councillor Chong: “That Council remove the opening prayer from the beginning of Council meetings and, over the next few months, consider whether a more inclusive affirmation or reflective silence is appropriate.” In preparation and support for a further deputation on the topic, I present this updated set of charts and data for anyone interested.

[All charts and statistics in this post are based on or otherwise derived from ABS data, including Community Profiles, DataPacks and TableBuilder. Data contains small random adjustments to protect respondents.]

First, though, a broader look at the state of the state. Clarence City is growing rather rapidly by any metric, and indeed, on the raw numeric change in population, is the fastest growing LGA in Tasmania, slowly taking bites out of Launceston City’s lead.

On proportional growth, however, Clarence City comes 7^th of 29, growing 12.24% over the prior 5 years. By this metric, Central Highlands is the fastest growing LGA, pushing up to 17.70%. All LGAs grew during the 2016-2021 inter-census period.³

A good chunk of the growth in Clarence comes in the form of a few thousand migrating millennials. The conspicuous bump on the 2021 line is that fresh immigration, which could well have been even stronger had the pandemic not interrupted the reporting period.

Australia⁴ more broadly has also experienced migration from millennials, although the strength is somewhat dampened compared to Clarence. This chart also illustrates that Clarence skews just mildly older than the overall Australian population.

Now, though, we come to the point of this whole endeavour. This chart contains the same information as the charts I attached to my previous deputation, with the addition, now that we have access to the 2021 Census data… Of the 2021 Census data. As I predicted in my March deputation, the combination of “No religion” and “Not adequately stated” has risen above 50% in Clarence, but Australia more broadly has not quite got there and is on track for 2026.

And actually, if you decide to ignore the “Not adequately stated” portions, there’s a very decent argument to be made that Clarence is now majority non-religious. In other good news, followers of religions other than Christianity have more than doubled in number since the 2016 Census, and at least on raw numbers have finally crested 1996 levels.

It is, of course, young people’s fault.⁸ Christianity remains the majority religion for Baby Boomers⁹ and older, almost to the exclusion of any other religion, but for Millennials⁹ and younger, irreligion is increasingly popular. The large grouping of “Other religion” in the Millennials column almost certainly comes from those immigration numbers earlier in the piece. Welcome, all, and thanks for making Clarence a more vibrant and diverse place to be.

If there’s any takeaway to be gained from this, it should probably be that the long slide into irreligion does not look to be slowing up any time soon. Christianity has long since stopped being the default position. I can’t tell you what any of this means for Australian society. I just like looking at cool charts. Go away now, I’ll see you again next week.

…Wait, they’re not electing the committees on Monday? What?

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