Hinduism seemed to be the fastest growing religion in Australia in the span of last 25 years, increasing from 0.3% in 1991 census to 1.9% of the population in 2016 census, numbering at 440,300.
According to information from Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) release sourced from 2016 census and dated June 27; “No Religion” is now the largest group in Australia at 30.1% of the population, followed by Catholics at 22.6% and Anglicans at 13.3%. Young adults (aged 18-34 years) were more likely to report not having a religion. Men were more likely than women to say they had no religion. Tasmania had the highest proportion of people (38.2%) stating that they did not have a religion.
On June 27 at seven pm, the resident population of Australia was projected to be 24,570,122, where there is overall total population increase of one person every one minute and 23 seconds.
Meanwhile, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, congratulated the Hindu community in Australia for continuing with the traditional values of hard work, higher morals, stress on education, sanctity of marriage, etc., amidst so many distractions.
Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, advised Hindus to focus on inner search, stay pure, explore the vast wisdom of scriptures, make spirituality more attractive to youth and children, stay away from the greed, and always keep God in your life.
Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about 1.1 billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.
ABS, Australia’s national statistical agency, whose Vision is “Unleashing the power of statistics for a better Australia”, was established as a Statutory Authority in the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975; although statistics were collected by each state in 1901. Headquartered in Canberra, it is headed by the Australian Statistician David W. Kalisch.
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I do not know why every statistics ignores Buddhism as a religion. In fact it is the largest religion in the world, followed by Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Many consider Buddhism and Hinduism as one, like Protestant and Catholics, Shia and Sunni. The main reason Buddhism is being ignored is that although China is 95% Buddhist, it is officially not listed as such nation, being a Communist country. Besides China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma and few more are Buddhist nations. The reason why Hindu population in Australia is going up is that many Hindus from India are migrating to Australia, as Australian politicians are aware of our rich culture, tradition and noble heritage. Hindus are considered as the most law abiding, highly educated and gainfully employed people in Australia. It is time for us to blow our own trumpet, as British Indians do not get their just reward in this country, although we, along with Jewish people are net contributor and most law abiding people here in UK with the lowest prison population. Yet we are being ignored or marginalized, caste legislation is the prime example. It is time for Hindus to be assertive but without unity, we will always be ignored.