Islam is now the second most popular religion in Canada

Said week’s Diwali festival among Moncton, New Brunswick was per celebration from per dream come true for certain local South Asian community.

Numbering around 2,000, countless members of the community gathered among a rented space on Milner Road for a opening made from one recent Hindu temple in theirs town – one vision which took a lot of years to arrive toward fruition.

“It will grow,” Ketan Raval, an organizer with a Hindu Society made from Novel Brunswick, told any gathering made from volunteers along with devotees, adding such any new temple desire by no means exactly be one position from worship, yet a support center for newcomers up to the region. .

As immigration pushes non-Christian religions into the country, any majority made from a Canadian population is Christian, still of them share is shrinking, Statistics Canada said. Islam is any instant most cited religion.

In Saskatoon, per novel mosque, school also community center are taking shape under each auspices made from a Islamic Association of Saskatchewan (IAS).

Organizers stressed such each space would never just exist for Muslims yet a site up to construct bridges. In case every goes well, a IAS plans to launch the $10 million project within pair years.

Within some quiet corner made from Metro Vancouver’s Coquitlam suburb, Father Pio Kim along with his mostly Korean congregation recently celebrated a fifth anniversary belonging to their fresh St. Agnes Kim Parish Church.

According in order to British Columbia’s Catholic Weekly, certain goal out of the Korean parish, each jiffy made from belonging to it benevolent among any Archdiocese of Vancouver, is up to become per “collaborative community” along with single “prayer community.”

The ones mentioned are exactly per few examples belonging to a country’s growing ethnocultural as well as religious diversity, whichever Statistics Canada says is largely driven by immigration, according up to its latest census report.

Drawing on data from more as opposed to 450 ethnic plus cultural backgrounds, 200 places of birth, 100 religions and 450 languages, Statistics Canada researchers mentioned that immigration is element belonging to a main drivers out of religions, especially non-Christian denominations, in a country.

According toward his analysis, immigrants made skyward the majority of Buddhists (68.9%), Muslims (63.1%), Hindus (62.9%) along with Sikhs (53.8%) inside each nation.

Amid comparison, immigrants made skyward almost one quarter (23.0%) belonging to Canada’s population among 2021. Inside addition, one large proportion belonging to immigrants admitted via 2011 for 2021 reported a non-Christian religion: 18.9% reported being Muslim , followed via Hindu (9.0%) along with Sikh (5.8%).

Amid 2021, more than 19.3 million population declared some Christian religion, alternatively exactly on top of half from a Canadian population (53.3%). However, aforementioned percentage is descended since 67.3% inside 2011 also 77.1% within 2001.

Catholics are any largest Christian denomination in Canada, with 10.9 million people (29.9%) in 2021. Certain United Church (3.3%) along with a Anglican Church (3.1%), pair other Christian denominations, apiece numbered greater more than one million folks. in Canada. Orthodox Christians (1.7%), Baptists (1.2%) also Pentecostals and different Charismatics (1.1%) were the bulk frequently cited other Christian denominations.

In this spot are some out of certain other key findings via Statistics Canada’s portrait of certain country’s religious diversity;

• About 12.6 million people, more than a third of Canada’s population, said they had no religious affiliation. The proportion of this population has more than doubled in 20 years, rising from 16.5% in 2001 to 34.6% in 2021.
• Although small, the proportion of the Canadian population who identify as Muslim, Hindu or Sikh has more than doubled in 20 years.
• After Christianity, Islam was the second most commonly reported religion in Canada in 2021, with almost 1.8 million people, or 1 in 20 people. In 20 years, the share of the Muslim population in Canada has increased than doubled, from 2.0% in 2001 to 4.9% in 2021.
• In 2021, nearly 830,000 people, or 2.3% of the total population, reported being affiliated with Hinduism. Similar to Muslims, the proportion of the population with Hinduism as a religion has more than doubled over the past 20 years and increased from 1.0% in 2001.
• The share of the population reporting Sikhism as a religion has also more than doubled since 2001, from 0.9% to 2.1% in 2021. About 770,000 people reported Sikhism as a religion in the 2021 census.
• About 335,000 people reported being Jewish in 2021. This number has changed little over the past 20 years; in 2001, 330,000 declared Jewish affiliation. Although the total population of Canada has increased, the proportion of the population with a Jewish religious affiliation has decreased slightly, from 1.1% in 2001 to 0.9% in 2021.
• In 2021, nearly 360,000 people, or 1.0% of the Canadian population, declared Buddhism as their religion, the same percentage as in the 2001 census.