Since 1871, the federal government has asked Canadians about their religious affiliation every 10 years through its census — one of the oldest efforts to track religion in the world.
That will change in 2026, when for the first time Statistics Canada will ask that question just five years after the 2021 census.
The reason for the change is the growth in minority religions and dramatic rise in Canadians who say they are not affiliated with any religion, says Simon-Pierre Lacasse, an analyst at the Centre for Population and Social Statistics for Statistics Canada.
Lacasse noted that the number of Canadians who are Muslim, Sikh and Hindu rose from six per cent of the population in 2011 to over nine per cent in 2021.
Meanwhile, nearly 35 per cent of Canadians said they had no religious affiliation in 2021, up from about 29 per cent just a decade earlier.
By asking the question in 2026, the agency will be better able to track these trends, providing policy makers, business leaders and others with more up-to-date data about the religious and ethnic diversity of the country, Lacasse says.
Statistics Canada conducts its census every five years. But Lacasse cautioned that Statistics Canada will not necessarily ask about religious affiliation every five years after 2026.
“Every cycle for the census involves consultation with stakeholders and advisors about what to include,” he said. “It’s a complex process.”
A good decision
Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, who teaches sociology at the University of Waterloo and directs the Institute for Religion, Culture and Societal Futures, says she welcomes the change.
“This will give a much better view of the changing religious landscape in the country,” she said.
The rise in the number of people who are Muslim, Sikh and Hindu, along with the growth of so-called religious “nones,” has implications for politics, culture and economics, she said.
Wilkins-Laflamme said she wouldn’t be surprised to learn from the next census that the percentage of the Canadian population who say they are Christian has dipped below 50 per cent.
“It was 53 per cent in 2021, but I’m betting it’s lower now,” she said.
Peter Schuurman, who teaches religion and theology at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont., also welcomes Statistics Canada’s decision.
“What is especially important in the coming years is to know just when the non-affiliated, the ‘nones,’ might bypass the number of Christians in the country,” he said.
“That would be a historic first and a shift in how we see religious life in Canada … it would be good for Statistics Canada to verify that.”
Sam Reimer, who teaches sociology at Crandall University in Moncton, N.B., says more frequent data on religious affiliation could help with understanding what he called “religious transmission” — that is, whether younger Canadians are switching or staying with the faith they grew up in.
Rick Hiemstra, who directs research for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, similarly regards the change as good news. But he would like to see Statistics Canada broaden how it counts and reports about religious affiliation when it comes to evangelicals.
“The size of the evangelical movement is opaque and there are no public mechanisms for bringing more clarity,” he said. He noted that many growing ethnic and other evangelical groups don’t get counted by the census due to the way the agency codes religious affiliation.
Providing that information could counter the idea that all religion is declining in Canada, Hiemstra says. It could “generate a better picture of religious trends in Canada,” he said.
