Churches come tumbling down!
Is Canada leading the way? Will we be a secular nation soon or are we already there?
Those who claimed no religion are:
1961 - 1%
1971 - 4%
2001 - 16%
with 35% in British Columbia.
Religious affiliation continues, but religious practice has declined significantly, with many Catholic Quebecers being content to send their children to Sunday School.
Catholicism is being maintained by immigration, but second-generation immigrants are just like any other Catholics. Mainline Protestant congregations are shrinking fast -- and are significantly older than the general population.
Most scholars of religion now recognize that adherence to the country's pre-eminent faith — 72 per cent of Canadians self-identified as Christian in the last full census year of 2001, down eight points from 1991 (while fewer than 20 per cent regularly attend services) — has not been following some decades-long trend of gentle decline, as many had thought.
Rather, church membership steadily climbed before the 1960s and then abruptly collapsed.
The United Church, Canada's largest Protestant denomination, had more children in its Sunday schools in 1961 (757,338) than its total membership in 2001 (637,941). Its decline began in 1966.
Anglican membership peaked in 1964 (1,204,601), then fell almost by half by 2001 (641,845).
The Presbyterians grew from 173,152 members in 1945 to a peak of 202,566 in 1964. The next year it lost 68 members, the following year more than 2,300 and, by 2001, membership had fallen to 132,659 — 40,000 fewer than in 1945.