Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Historically speaking, Canadian society has been in a rapid transition into a secular state. According to Statistics Canada, the number of Canadians in 2019 who identified as having a religious affiliation was 68 percent, which is a shift from 90 percent in 1985. The trend line into 2025 likely continues this loss of religious affiliation. Therefore, Canadian society is experiencing a long-term, multi-decade decline in religious identity.
The current number of individuals, 68 percent (2021), with religious affiliation implies an increasingly large proportion of Canadians without it. The proportion of Canadians without religious identity increased from 16.5 percent in 2001 to 34.6 percent in 2021. These two trends reflect related phenomena.
Not only are Canadians declining in religious identity, but they are also reducing commitments and convictions regarding religious participation and belief. Twenty three percent of Canadians participated in religious activities once per month, and 30 percent participated in individual spiritual or religious activities weekly. The former stated related trends of declining religious affiliation and increasing irreligious identification connect to the reduction in commitment.
Young Canadians differ from older Canadians in this regard. Older Canadians tend to adhere to religion more regarding self-identity and spiritual activities. In 2021, B.C. had the highest levels of irreligion in Canada, with 52.1 percent of the population as irreligious. If these trends follow the general statistical findings nationally from reliable sources, then the irreligious numbers in 2025 will be higher in B.C.
Sidebar findings are that the overall decline in religiosity may be driven largely by a decline in Christianity with modest increases in the proportion of individuals who identify as non-Christian religions, e.g., Muslims. About 5 percent of the population nationally identifies as Muslim compared to 2 percent in 2001.
The religious and non-religious trends indicate an increase in irreligion nationally and provincially (and territorially), with modest increases in non-Christian religions. Most of the decline is due to the loss of Christian religious identification and practice.
As a journalist of many decades experience, I believe that much of the increase in non-religious Canadians is not that there really are more of them, but that fewer people each time are bothering to lie to the pollsters.
Stating that you have no religious beliefs will still likely earn a scoffing or sneering response (especially in the Forces) but it is much less prevalent than in past years and decades.
Simply put, people are no longer afraid to tell the truth.