Map: See which religion is dominant in your suburb

The 2021 Census threw up some surprising data on religion, with the number of Christians plummeting. See results for your area.

It’s the small Australian town with the biggest population of nonbelievers in Australia.

The latest Census found that for the first time, the number of Aussies who said they were Christian was less than those who either followed another faith or were not religious at all.

According to 2021 Census data released on Tuesday, 13,486 out of the southeastern Melbourne town of Langwarrin’s 23,000 residents reported they are non-religious, while 9761 are Christian.

While Langwarrin has the most people with no religion, hipster hotspot Byron Bay in northern NSW had a higher proportion of nonbelievers.

More than 6511 said they did not follow a faith, compared with 2711 who said they are Christian.

Rev Bill Crews is not surprised the number of Christians has dropped in the latest Census. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Rev Bill Crews, a Christian minister for Uniting Church, said he was not surprised the Census showed the number of Christians has dramatically fallen in the last decade, from 61.1 per cent in 2011, to 43.9 per cent in 2021.

“A lot of Australians have always been nominal Christians, they ticked the box if they were or they weren’t,” he said.

“But I think the numbers dropping off are because of the sex abuse scandals. It’s what I hear over and over again. It’s taken away a lot of the Church’s ability to speak.”

Rev Crews said people are also fed up with the judgmental views of the church and no longer believed in concepts such as “evil spirits”.

Crowds at Lakemba Mosque in Lakemba, Sydney.

He suggests even though there has been an increase in those following non-Christian faiths, those religions would also see their congregations shrink in future.

Crews points to the falling off of religion, and the lack of spirituality in people’s lives, to potentially increasing the incidence of anxiety and depression in Australia.

Analysis of the Census data found all the suburbs in the major cities were predominantly split between non-religious or Christian, although Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane also have pockets where minority religions were dominant.

Cabramatta-Lansvale in Sydney has more than 10,000 Buddhists, the biggest concentration in the country. Wentworthville-Westmead had the most Hindus, with 9419, and Lakemba was home to the most Muslims with more than 10,400.

Crowds at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney.

While in Melbourne, Mickleham-Yuroke had the largest number of Sikhs, 3976, and Caulfield North the most Jews, 9301.

Christians dominated country NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory, while outback WA and South Australia were mostly populated by people who deemed themselves non-religious.

Tasmania’s coastal communities were mainly non-religious with a swath of Christian dominant areas in the centre. One area, Wilderness East, had only three people living there, all Buddhists

Originally published as Map: See which religion is dominant in your suburb