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Irreligion in Canada

Irreligion is common throughout all provinces and territories of Canada. Irreligious Canadians include atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists.[2] The surveys may also include those who are deists, spiritual, pantheists. The 2021 Canadian census reported that 34.6% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, which is up from 23.9% in the 2011 Canadian census and 16.5% in the 2001 Canadian census.[3][4] According to Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, among those estimated 4.9 million Canadians of no religion, an estimated 1.9 million would specify atheist, 1.8 million would specify agnostic, and 1.2 million humanist.[5]

Irreligion in Canada
Canada
Population distribution of Irreligious Canadians by census division, 2021 census
Total population
12,577,475[1]
34.6% of the total Canadian population (2021)
Regions with significant populations
Ontario4,433,675 (31.60%)
British Columbia2,559,250 (52.06%)
Quebec2,267,715 (27.29%)
Alberta1,676,045 (40.12%)
Manitoba480,315 (36.74%)
Languages
Canadian English • Canadian French
Other Languages of Canada
Related ethnic groups
Percent of Canadians not identifying with a religion by province or territory in 2011
  0–9% irreligious
  10–19% irreligious
  20–29% irreligious
  30–39% irreligious
  ≥ 40% irreligious

Surveys and public opinion polls

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In 2011, a survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid showed that 47% of the Canadian population believed religion does more harm in the world than good, while 64% believed that religion provides more questions than answers.[6] A 2008 Canadian Press Harris-Decima telephone survey of just over 1,000 Canadians found 23% were willing to state they do not believe in any God.[7]

The Canadian Ipsos-Reid poll released September 12, 2011 entitled "Canadians Split On Whether Religion Does More Harm in the World than Good", sampled 1,129 Canadian adults and came up with 30% who do not believe in a God. The same poll found that 33% of respondents who identified themselves as Catholics and 28% Protestants said they didn't believe in a God.[8]

A 2010 80-questions mail-in survey of 420 Canadians by Carleton University Survey Centre and the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies found 30% agreed with the statement "I know God really exists and I have no doubts", 20% acknowledged they "have doubts" but "feel that I do believe in God", 10% answered they believe in God "sometimes", 20% said they don't believe in a "personal God" but "do believe in a higher power", 12% adopted the classic agnostic position and said they "don't know whether there is a God and don't believe there is a way to find out", and 7% said no God exists. Slightly more than half believed in heaven, while less than a third believed in hell, with 53.5% saying they believed in life after death. About 27% said they believe in reincarnation, and 50% expressed belief in religious miracles.[9]

Associations

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Many non-religious Canadians have formed associations, such as the Humanist Association of Canada which was founded in 1968, the Centre for Inquiry Canada, the University of Toronto-based Toronto Secular Alliance, Canadian Atheists, and the Society of Freethinkers which was founded in 1992. In 1999, hundreds of non-religious Canadians signed a petition to remove the mention of "God" from the preamble to the Canadian Constitution. Past House of Commons members, Svend Robinson, who tabled this petition in Parliament, was subsequently relegated to the backbenches by his party leader.[10] Shortly afterwards, the same group petitioned to remove the mention of "God" from the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada", but have not yet succeeded.

In 2015, the Mouvement Laïque Québécois (Quebec Secular Movement) obtained in Supreme Court that "reciting prayer at start of each meeting of council is in breach of principle of religious neutrality of state and results in discriminatory interference with freedom of conscience and religion" and should therefore be abolished[11]

Survey by province

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A map of Canada by province and territory showing the distribution of the population by religious affiliation in 2021

The Canadian provinces and territories ranked by percentage of population claiming no religion according to the 2001 Canadian Census,[12] the 2011 Canadian Census[13] and the 2021 Canadian Census[14] These results were obtained with the question "What is this person's religion?"

Rank Jurisdiction % Irreligious (2021) % Irreligious (2011) % Irreligious (2001) Change (2011—2021) Change (2001–2011)
-   Canada 34.6% 23.9% 16.2% +10.7 +7.7
01   Yukon 59.7% 49.9% 37.4% +9.8 +12.5
02   British Columbia 52.1% 44.1% 35.1% +8 +9.0
03   Alberta 40.1% 31.6% 23.1% +8.5 +8.5
04   Northwest Territories 39.8% 30.5% 17.4% +9.3 +13.1
05   Nova Scotia 37.6% 21.8% 11.6% +15.8 +10.2
06   Manitoba 36.7% 26.5% 18.3% +10.2 +8.2
07   Saskatchewan 36.6% 24.4% 15.4% +12.2 +9.0
08   Ontario 31.6% 23.1% 16.0% +8.5 +7.1
09   New Brunswick 29.7% 15.1% 7.8% +14.6 +7.3
10   Prince Edward Island 28.5% 14.4% 6.5% +14.1 +7.9
11   Quebec 27.3% 12.1% 5.6% +15.2 +6.5
12   Nunavut 24.9% 13.0% 6.0% +11.9 +7.0
13   Newfoundland and Labrador 16.0% 6.2% 2.5% +9.8 +3.7

The Canadian provinces ranked by percentage of population claiming to believe in God according to Association for Canadian Studies.[15] These are results obtained of respondents' agreement with the statement "I believe in God", in a poll conducted in May 2019.

Rank Jurisdiction % Strongly or somewhat agree % Strongly or somewhat disagree Ratio
-   Canada 58.80% 28.40% 2.07
01   Nova Scotia 42.40% 42.40% 1.00
02   British Columbia 48.20% 39.60% 1.22
03   Quebec 53.50% 33.50% 1.60
04   Prince Edward Island 40.00% 20.00% 2.00
05   Alberta 63.70% 25.80% 2.47
06   Ontario 63.60% 24.50% 2.60
07   New Brunswick 60.50% 18.70% 3.24
08   Manitoba 65.80% 20.30% 3.24
09   Newfoundland and Labrador 65.80% 15.80% 4.16
10   Saskatchewan 73.20% 9.00% 8.13

Ethnic group

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% of Irreligious Canadians
Ethnic groups (2001−2021)
2021
[1][16] 		2011
[17] 		2001
[18]
Population % Population Population %
European 9,289,060 73.85% 6,020,695 76.69% 3,811,880 77.79%
Chinese 1,230,520 9.78% 852,740 10.86% 603,115 12.31%
Indigenous 849,560 6.75% 437,570 5.57% 212,120 4.33%
African 278,895 2.22% 125,905 1.6% 80,430 1.64%
South Asian 156,885 1.25% 67,405 0.86% 30,610 0.62%
Latin American 141,470 1.12% 51,035 0.65% 20,775 0.42%
Southeast Asians 139,805 1.11% 71,840 0.92% 39,915 0.81%
Multiracial 102,885 0.82% 39,715 0.51% 13,875 0.28%
West Asians 102,610 0.82% 39,930 0.51% 9,940 0.2%
Koreans 86,780 0.69% 44,195 0.56% 20,040 0.41%
Japanese 66,930 0.53% 49,150 0.63% 34,660 0.71%
Filipino 54,735 0.44% 19,230 0.24% 6,990 0.14%
Arabs 40,010 0.32% 15,300 0.19% 5,435 0.11%
Other Ethnicity 37,365 0.3% 15,885 0.2% 9,320 0.19%
  Total Irreligious
Canadian Population 		12,577,475 100% 7,850,605 100% 4,900,095 100%

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Religion by visible minority and generation status: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts". Statistics Canada. 26 October 2022.
  2. ^ Zuckerman, Phil (2010), Atheism and Secularity: Issues, concepts, and definitions, Praeger, ISBN 9780313351815, retrieved 3 February 2010
  3. ^ "The Canadian census: A rich portrait of the country's religious and ethnocultural diversity". Statistics Canada/Statistique Canada. 26 October 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  4. ^ "Religions in Canada—Census 2011". Statistics Canada/Statistique Canada. 8 May 2013.
  5. ^ "Non-Christian religious data in Canada". Religioustolerance.org. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  6. ^ "Canadians Split On Whether Religion Does More Harm in the World than Good". 12 September 2011. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
  7. ^ "Almost a quarter of Canadians don't believe in any god, new poll says". CBC News. 3 June 2008. A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
  8. ^ "Canadians Split On Whether Religion Does More Harm in the World than Good | Ipsos". Ipsos-na.com. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  9. ^ The results of this survey are considered accurate to within 4.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
  10. ^ Kurt Bowen (2005). Christians in a Secular World: The Canadian Experience. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-7735-2712-6.
  11. ^ "Supreme Court of Canada".
  12. ^ StatCan Staff (13 May 2003). "Religions in Canada, 2001 Census". Statistics Canada. Retrieved 18 December 2009.
  13. ^ "The Daily — 2011 National Household Survey: Immigration, place of birth, citizenship, ethnic origin, visible minorities, language and religion". 8 May 2013.
  14. ^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (9 February 2022). "Profile table, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population - Canada [Country]". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  15. ^ JACK JEDWAB, PRESIDENT OF THE ACS (1 July 2019). "Do Canadians Believe in God?" (PDF). Association for Canadian Studies. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  16. ^ Statistics Canada (26 October 2022). "Religion by Indigenous identity: Canada, provinces and territories". Government of Canada. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  17. ^ Statistics Canada (23 January 2019). "2011 National Household Survey: Data tables Religion (19), Age Groups (10), Sex (3), Selected Demographic, Cultural, Labour Force and Educational Characteristics (268) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2011 National Household Survey". Government of Canada. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  18. ^ Statistics Canada (23 December 2013). "2001 Census Topic-based tabulations Religion (95) and Visible Minority Groups (15) for Population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data". Government of Canada. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
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