Religion in Australia mapped

Now for an interactive map that lets you browse the religious landscape of Australia. Each suburb in Australia has been classified based on its religious make-up. The classification is designed to highlight where there is particular concentrations of certain religions. It has looser requirements for rarer Australian faiths such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Areas classified with common groups such as Catholicism, Anglicanism and non-religious demographics have stricter criteria and require significant proportions of residents.

The colour classifications

The map uses color classifications to identify particularly notable religions in a geographical area. The areas without a colour classification are simply not worth classifying with a single religion - because no religion is dominant enough in these areas to highlight.

The map

The interactive map is below. Clicking on a suburb reveals more details. All of Australia is covered therefore the map can be navigated as necessary. Across the whole of Australia, the five most common responses were:

• Catholic 25.3%
• No Religion 22.3%
• Anglican 17.1%
• Uniting Church 5.0% 
• Presbyterian and Reformed 2.8% (categorised as Christian (Other) here).

Some observations from the map:

• Sydney (click the link to open a new window/tab) has a fairly large amount of religious clusters:
• Areas with 30-40% Islamic residents in the west, including Auburn and Greenacre
• Areas with over 40% Buddhists around Canley Vale in the city's west
• Almost half of the residents are Jewish around Dover Heights
• Hindu
• There is a substantial Eastern Orthodox population to the south of the CBD around Rockdale/Banksia
• Inner city residents have more of a tendency to be non-religious
• The dominant faith in the remaining suburbs is Catholicism

• Melbourne also has a number of religious clusters:
• Substantial Islamic clusters exist around Meadow Heights in the north-west and Dandenong in the south east
• There are two Buddhist clusters; one around Sunshine in the west of the city and another around Springvale in the south-east.
• A few Eastern Orthodox clusters exist in the east of the city, for example, the Oakleigh/Huntingdale area
• The two most dominant groups overall are the Catholics and the non-religious residents. There appears to be more Catholics in the west and more non-religious residents in the east of the city.

• Brisbane has a more even spread than Sydney and Melbourne.
• The non-religious dominate the inner city
• The largest groups in the suburbs are generally Catholics
• The only substantial minority cluster is in Kuraby, where 21% of residents are Islamic

• Perth follows a similar pattern to Brisbane in that the inner city is dominated by younger, non-religious residents and the suburbs tend to be either dominated by Catholics (or fairly evenly spread)

• The inner-west and inner-west of Adelaide are dominated by large proportions of Catholics.
• There is a cluster of Eastern Orthodox in the inner-west city centre area of Richmond
• The remainder of the CBD and suburbs are dominated by the non-religious demographic

• Rural and regional Australia contains a broad mix:
• Religions such as Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are very rare compared to the large cities
• Anglicanism is extremely popular across broad swathes of the country, particularly in rural New South Wales and Queensland
• In some areas, such as APY Lands, the dominant faith is traditional Aboriginal religion
• As with the cities, Catholicism and non-religious demographics remain very common in rural Australia

Data is provided from the 2011 census undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. If you would like to read more about Religion and the 2011 Australian Census, click here to read a previous post on the subject.

Australian population density heatmap

Here are some interactive heatmaps that let you compare the population density of Australian suburbs.

If you click on a suburb you will see more details of the suburb, including population density figures, plus other demographic stats. The whole of Australia is covered, so you can zoom out and move around the maps as you need.

The densest suburb is Pyrmont/Ultimo in Sydney with 12,563 people per square kilometre (see below). At the other end of the scale, the emptiest area in Australia is the Western region of South Australia, with 0.001 persons per square kilometre, or one person per 1000 square kilometres.

Sydney

Melbourne

Brisbane

Perth

The source of this data is the 2011 Australian Census, undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

If you want to read more about population density in Australia, have a look at this article.

Australia: the world's fastest growing large rich country

In the decade between 2000 and 2010, Australia's population grew by 15.1%, more than any other large rich country. Spain was second with 14.4% growth and Canada was third with a 14.4% increase.

Population growth in IMF advanced economies with a population greater than 10 million, 2000-2010

Despite the country facing many of the same demographic challenges as other rich nations - namely an ageing population and a declining birth rate - it has managed to sustain strong population growth. This growth has been largely fueled by immigration; for example, in 2009, Australia had the highest rate of per-capita immigration in the OECD (the world's rich country club) in 2009.

Relative population growth 1980-2015,  top ten advanced economies

If smaller advanced economies are included in the analysis, only Singapore, Israel and Cyprus have outpaced Australia since 1980. When taking the IMF's 2015 population estimates, Singapore's growth rate is 123% during the period 1980-2015. Israel's rate is 119%, the growth rate for Cyprus rate is 78% and Australia comes in at 59%.

As the twelfth-emptiest country in the world, Australia certainly has the physical capacity to keep up its high rate of population growth. This is a key strength of the Australian economy as it can supplement its resource-led productivity gains with population-derived gains.

Population growth of Australian cities 2001-2011

Of Australia's larger cities, the south-east Queensland cities of Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast have been the fastest growing in the country from 2001 to 2011. The Gold Coast grew by 2.5% per year during the decade and the Sunshine Coast grew by 2.4% over the period.

Perth was the fastest growing capital during the decade to the 2011 census, with an annual rate of 2.14%. Queensland capital Brisbane was close behind with a growth rate of 2.11% over the period. The closeness of the figures between these two cities masks the accelerating growth in Perth since 2006. In the first half of the decade, Brisbane significantly outpaced Perth; however since 2006 the roles have reversed and Perth achieved a rate of 2.69% per year between 2006-2011.

The following chart uses the ABS's Greater Capital City Statistical Areas for the capitals, and Statistical Area Level 4 boundaries for the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong. This ensures consistent boundaries and no crossover. The data source is the 2011 Australian census.

Annual population growth rates of major Australian cities 2001-2011

Australia's largest city, Sydney, only managed a growth rate of around 1% during the decade to 2011. This is around half the growth rate seen in Perth and south-east Queensland. The Brisbane-Gold Coast-Sunshine Coast conurbation grew from a population of 2,357,417 to 2,933,714; equivalent to a growth rate of 2.2% per year during 2001-2011.

The population capacity of Australia

Australia is one of the emptiest countries in the world. In fact, it is the 12th least densely populated country in the world, ranked alongside vast, empty territories such as Mongolia and Western Sahara.

However given that a significant area of Australia is arid desert, perhaps it has reached capacity, constrained by limited food production? Certainly, Small Australia advocates such as Dick Smith appear to think that Australia is under unsustainable population pressure, having made comments this week that Brisbane increasing its population to 4 million would be "complete madness".

Unfortunately for Dick, the food capacity figures don't support his view. Australia has by far the most food growing capacity per capita on earth. Real Population Density measures the number of people per kilometre of arable land. The chart below inverses Real Population Density and shows the amount of arable land per person - and Australia clearly has the largest by a significant margin.

The amount of arable land per capita, in square metres. Australia has by far the most arable land per resident. Other notable countries are highlighted in orange for comparison.

So we can see that Australia under-uses its arable land relative to other countries. But what could its population be if it matched the utilisation seen in other nations? The chart below shows what Australia's population could be.

If Australia had the Real Population Density seen in each of these nations, what would its population be?

If Australia fed as many people as the world average with its arable land, its population would be 152 million, around 7 times its current population, or just under half of the population of the United States.

Australia could allow its population to grow to 84 million, and it would match the utilisation of food growing capacity of the United States. If it grew to a massive 1.4 billion, it would only then be matching Japan and South Korea's real population density.

Of course there are multiple factors that can skew these figures. Food exports and imports will affect the figures at a national level. Other parameters include level of development and cultural differences; these will affect how food is used. Perhaps the fairest comparison is the United States - a nation of a similar geographical area, development level and culture - which indicates an Australian population of 84 million is entirely sustainable.

The 'Real Population Density' figures used here are derived from the 2005 CIA World Factbook.

Most densely populated suburbs in Australia

A ranking of the top 150 most densely populated suburbs in Australia. New South Wales utterly dominates the list, with 118 of the top areas. Victoria provides 25, Queensland provides 6 and Western Australia provides 1 suburb.

The suburb with the highest population density in Australia is Elisabeth Bay in inner Sydney. Victoria's densest area is Southbank, Queensland's is Teneriffe and WA's is Highgate.

*Density = Population density measured by persons per square kilometre.

Rank	State Rank		Name	State	Persons	Area (sq. km.)	Density*
1	1		Elizabeth Bay	NSW	5093	0.253	20165
2	2		Rushcutters Bay	NSW	2372	0.156	15221
3	3		Wentworth Point	NSW	2759	0.214	12869
4	4		Ultimo	NSW	7111	0.558	12734
5	5		Pyrmont	NSW	11618	0.933	12458
6	6		Darlinghurst	NSW	10060	0.857	11738
7	7		Milsons Point	NSW	2013	0.172	11701
8	8		Surry Hills	NSW	15342	1.317	11651
9	9		Bondi	NSW	9614	0.861	11162
10	10		Potts Point	NSW	6862	0.617	11128
11	11		Redfern	NSW	12034	1.172	10269
12	12		Haymarket	NSW	5376	0.529	10169
13	13		Liberty Grove	NSW	2048	0.207	9880
14	14		Millers Point	NSW	1736	0.178	9739
15	15		Waterloo (NSW)	NSW	10657	1.134	9399
16	16		Hillsdale	NSW	4977	0.546	9110
17	17		Bondi Beach	NSW	10748	1.186	9063
18	18		Newtown (NSW)	NSW	14148	1.571	9008
19	1		Southbank	VIC	11235	1.262	8900
20	19		Chippendale	NSW	4057	0.463	8761
21	20		Allawah	NSW	5367	0.625	8591
22	21		Woolloomooloo	NSW	3716	0.434	8553
23	22		Erskineville	NSW	6848	0.814	8412
24	23		Edgecliff	NSW	1981	0.241	8217
25	24		Bondi Junction	NSW	8660	1.079	8023
26	25		Enmore (Marrickville - NSW)	NSW	3572	0.445	8022
27	2		Carlton (Vic.)	VIC	13509	1.696	7964
28	26		Harris Park	NSW	5072	0.637	7956
29	27		Kirribilli	NSW	3668	0.476	7708
30	28		Paddington (NSW)	NSW	12134	1.611	7531
31	29		Neutral Bay	NSW	9384	1.265	7421
32	30		Coogee (NSW)	NSW	14012	1.918	7304
33	31		Waverley (NSW)	NSW	4253	0.590	7206
34	32		Lakemba	NSW	15508	2.187	7091
35	33		North Bondi	NSW	8581	1.213	7076
36	34		Kingsford (NSW)	NSW	14101	2.013	7004
37	35		Wiley Park	NSW	9698	1.393	6962
38	3		Fitzroy (Vic.)	VIC	9430	1.377	6846
39	36		St Leonards (NSW)	NSW	4467	0.665	6717
40	4		Balaclava (Vic.)	VIC	5383	0.805	6686
41	37		McMahons Point	NSW	2344	0.352	6659
42	38		Kurraba Point	NSW	1702	0.258	6602
43	39		Glebe (NSW)	NSW	11123	1.688	6589
44	40		Cremorne (NSW)	NSW	11048	1.691	6534
45	1		Teneriffe	QLD	4699	0.721	6518
46	41		Balmain East	NSW	1866	0.289	6454
47	42		Balmain	NSW	9783	1.523	6422
48	43		Wollstonecraft	NSW	8012	1.255	6383
49	5		Windsor (Vic.)	VIC	7069	1.111	6364
50	44		Ashfield (NSW)	NSW	22189	3.495	6348
51	45		Waitara	NSW	5370	0.847	6337
52	46		Dulwich Hill	NSW	12981	2.052	6326
53	47		Campsie	NSW	21218	3.370	6295
54	48		Dee Why	NSW	19838	3.152	6293
55	49		Queenscliff (NSW)	NSW	3208	0.512	6268
56	50		Stanmore (NSW)	NSW	7702	1.259	6115
57	51		Fairlight	NSW	5489	0.902	6087
58	52		Hurstville	NSW	26040	4.281	6082
59	53		Summer Hill (Ashfield - NSW)	NSW	6587	1.092	6032
60	54		Forest Lodge	NSW	2722	0.452	6019
61	55		Dolls Point	NSW	1784	0.298	5991
62	56		Tamarama	NSW	1450	0.243	5967
63	6		Prahran	VIC	11191	1.901	5887
64	57		Darlington (Sydney - NSW)	NSW	2243	0.381	5883
65	58		Newington (NSW)	NSW	5320	0.908	5860
66	59		Clovelly	NSW	4581	0.782	5858
67	60		Annandale (NSW)	NSW	8669	1.489	5823
68	61		Petersham	NSW	7529	1.298	5801
69	62		Rockdale	NSW	14036	2.424	5790
70	7		Elwood	VIC	14638	2.554	5732
71	63		Double Bay	NSW	4687	0.819	5725
72	64		Darling Point	NSW	3919	0.687	5703
73	65		Rhodes	NSW	5679	1.006	5645
74	66		Cremorne Point	NSW	1978	0.352	5618
75	67		Woollahra	NSW	7180	1.279	5615
76	8		St Kilda (Vic.)	VIC	17795	3.179	5597
77	9		St Kilda East	VIC	12576	2.256	5575
78	2		New Farm	QLD	11330	2.055	5513
79	68		Birchgrove	NSW	3107	0.576	5397
80	10		St Kilda West	VIC	2845	0.529	5381
81	3		Kangaroo Point (Qld)	QLD	7000	1.301	5379
82	69		Lavender Bay	NSW	852	0.159	5357
83	11		Richmond (Vic.)	VIC	23814	4.476	5321
84	70		Meadowbank (NSW)	NSW	3667	0.691	5303
85	71		Crows Nest (NSW)	NSW	4048	0.765	5293
86	72		Camperdown (NSW)	NSW	7866	1.491	5276
87	12		South Yarra	VIC	19134	3.649	5243
88	73		Breakfast Point	NSW	2744	0.524	5232
89	74		Randwick	NSW	27740	5.309	5225
90	13		Glen Huntly	VIC	4658	0.894	5212
91	75		Leichhardt (NSW)	NSW	13520	2.612	5176
92	14		Ripponlea	VIC	1478	0.286	5168
93	76		Beaconsfield (NSW)	NSW	906	0.176	5147
94	77		Burwood (NSW)	NSW	12466	2.425	5140
95	15		Collingwood (Vic.)	VIC	6467	1.267	5104
96	16		Seddon (Vic.)	VIC	4851	0.955	5078
97	78		Bronte	NSW	6827	1.347	5069
98	79		Sydney	NSW	14308	2.840	5039
99	80		Abbotsford (NSW)	NSW	5112	1.018	5022
100	1		Highgate (WA)	WA	1941	0.388	5004
101	81		Maroubra	NSW	29594	5.924	4996
102	82		Drummoyne	NSW	11378	2.279	4992
103	83		Kogarah	NSW	12764	2.589	4930
104	17		North Melbourne	VIC	11755	2.389	4920
105	84		Carlton (NSW)	NSW	9808	1.995	4916
106	85		Penshurst (NSW)	NSW	11692	2.386	4901
107	86		Brighton-le-Sands	NSW	8003	1.636	4893
108	87		Westmead	NSW	14171	2.903	4882
109	88		Bankstown	NSW	30572	6.290	4861
110	18		Kingsville	VIC	3509	0.725	4841
111	89		Kensington (NSW)	NSW	12776	2.643	4835
112	4		Highgate Hill	QLD	5824	1.210	4812
113	90		Chiswick	NSW	2470	0.513	4812
114	19		Princes Hill	VIC	2075	0.433	4790
115	20		Middle Park (Vic.)	VIC	4058	0.848	4788
116	91		Zetland	NSW	3812	0.804	4742
117	92		North Strathfield	NSW	4441	0.939	4731
118	93		Cooks Hill	NSW	3621	0.767	4720
119	94		Russell Lea	NSW	4780	1.020	4685
120	95		Freshwater (NSW)	NSW	8252	1.763	4681
121	96		Wareemba	NSW	1474	0.317	4652
122	97		Belmore	NSW	12574	2.731	4605
123	98		Cabramatta	NSW	20780	4.535	4582
124	21		Fitzroy North	VIC	11473	2.505	4580
125	99		Cammeray	NSW	6784	1.487	4561
126	22		Melbourne	VIC	28371	6.232	4552
127	100		Dawes Point	NSW	544	0.120	4539
128	23		Kensington (Vic.)	VIC	9719	2.147	4527
129	101		Fairfield Heights	NSW	6649	1.474	4510
130	102		Lewisham (NSW)	NSW	2927	0.650	4506
131	103		South Coogee	NSW	5076	1.132	4483
132	104		Bellevue Hill	NSW	10765	2.405	4476
133	105		Rozelle	NSW	7919	1.777	4457
134	5		Spring Hill (Qld)	QLD	5259	1.184	4440
135	24		Brunswick (Vic.)	VIC	22764	5.142	4427
136	106		Cronulla	NSW	17042	3.875	4397
137	107		Rosebery (NSW)	NSW	8479	1.928	4397
138	108		South Hurstville	NSW	4928	1.121	4395
139	109		Waverton	NSW	2807	0.639	4392
140	110		Punchbowl (Canterbury - NSW)	NSW	18429	4.243	4344
141	111		North Sydney	NSW	6258	1.441	4341
142	112		Naremburn	NSW	5474	1.261	4341
143	113		Bexley	NSW	19067	4.399	4335
144	114		Bardwell Valley	NSW	2205	0.510	4320
145	25		Carnegie	VIC	16299	3.805	4284
146	115		Chatswood	NSW	21194	4.961	4272
147	116		Croydon (NSW)	NSW	10381	2.451	4236
148	117		Marrickville	NSW	24613	5.813	4234
149	6		Auchenflower	QLD	5352	1.270	4213
150	118		Croydon Park (NSW)	NSW	10742	2.564	4189