Apparently Victorians are not a very pious group.
Statistics Canada recently compiled a list of which Canadian cities are or aren’t religious according to a 2021 census.
Surprisingly, all of the top six cities on the list saying they do not subscribe to any particular religion, were all cities in BC.
Nanaimo topped the list, Kamloops was next, followed by Victoria, Chilliwack, Kelowna and Vancouver.
Victoria and Nanaimo have very similar stats on the list along with the second most non-religious city, Kamloops.
For all three, just over 60% of the population claims they are not religious, about 35% are Christian and around 5% follow other religions.
Meanwhile on the east coast of Canada, St. John’s, Newfoundland is completely dichotomous to the west coast.
Out in St.John’s, a little over 20% of the population claim to be non-religious, around 77% is Christian and about 3% are religious but not Christian.
When you look at the map of religious distribution, it is clear the Newfoundland has the most Christian population.
BC and the Yukon Territories are the only two area on the list where the non-religious outnumber the Christian.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2021, over 19.3 million people reported a Christian religion, which is just over half of the Canadian population (53.3%).
This percentage is down from 67.3% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001.
