Census data reveal how immigration is transforming the religious composition of Melbourne suburbs

HIGH migration is changing the religious makeup of several Melbourne suburbs, census figures show. See which suburbs have the highest religious populations.

High migration is changing the religious makeup of several Melbourne suburbs, census figures show.

HIGH migration is changing the religious makeup of several Melbourne suburbs, census figures show.

While just over two million Melburnians identified as Christian last year, there has been rapid growth in numbers of Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus.

The city’s Islamic population in 2016 was 186,654, up 42,000 compared with the 2011 census figures.

Dallas, in the city’s north, has one of the highest concentrations of Muslims in Australia, with about half of the residents Islamic, up from 45.3 per cent in 2011.

Nearby Meadow Heights is 41.2 per cent Muslim, down slightly from 2011, while the proportion in Broadmeadows rose from 30.4 per cent to 35.6 per cent.

More than two million Melburnians are Christian.

A spokesman for state Multicultural Affairs Minister Robin Scott said that every Victorian had the right to express their religious beliefs freely, “regardless of where they’re living in our great city”.

“Concentration of religious or cultural groups is not a new phenomenon — it’s part of a well-documented pattern of migration and settlement,” the spokesman added. 

2014: SUBURBS WITH HIGH MUSLIM NUMBERS ARE BECOMING MORE ISLAMIC

“New migrants often settle in communities initially, and spread out as time goes by.”

In the southeastern suburb of Glen Huntly, Indian migration means that one in five residents now is Hindu, up from 12.3 per cent in 2011.

Hindus — of which there were 128,940 in Melbourne in 2016 (up 49,000) — are also well represented in the outer western suburb of Williams Landing, comprising 16.4 per cent of residents.

Religion in Melbourne’s suburbs.

However, the census shows that religious concentrations in some areas are declining.

For example, in Caulfield — a traditional centre of Judaism — 40.5 per cent of residents identified as Jewish in 2016, down from 45.6 per cent in 2011.

Meanwhile, Springvale, home to a strong Vietnamese community, had a Buddhist population of 22.5 per cent, down from 27.3 per cent five years ago.

And for the first time since the post-war period, the northern suburb of Greenvale is no longer majority Catholic, dropping from 54.9 per cent in 2011 to 47.2 per cent last year.

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@JMasanauskas