Religion is a stretch made on a geographical, cultural as well as ethical boundaries which becomes an ultimate focus of an individual and acts as a key for family identification. The religion seems to be just a tag we follow but has been guiding each of our actions and activities in reality. The social, cultural, psychological as well as spiritual needs are being served by religion. This is why it is regarded as a very important tag a person holds that guides his/her pattern of behaviour. Religion denotes faith or divinity in general but has a conceptualized knowledge when an ultimate choice is made out of options we are given to because it is guided by various forms of God who are said to be spiritual mentors in our life. There are teaching, principles as well as theories which follows a common principle but a vague history and respective answering the curiosity faced by an individual during their life.
Australia and religion
Religion becomes the ethics one holds during their life to achieve the goals of salvation because a human mind being a socialized version of animals should be thinking about something productive with genuine reasoning for the exertion we make. Religion is something you will find wherever you go. It is a variable factor of people in various places. Australia is a secular country since federation took place ( 1 January 901). With response to the Constitution of Australia of 1901, section 116 prohibits the Commonwealth government from interfering with the freedom of religion. In simple words, it refers to the right to choose a religion. Freedom of religion is a principle that favor one’s choice in selecting the belief one wishes to follow or adopt the doctrines which feels genuine to an individual with no external compulsion.
What affects the religious status of Australia?
28.5% of the estimated resident population (ERP) population of Australia was born overseas which means migrants in general at the initial phase. It is a nation with higher immigrants rather than emigrants from Australia. In this case, the originality of the immigrants affects the religion at the most because of your ethics and the doctrine you follow will not change just because you migrated and changed the place to stay in. A social butterfly might be living in various states within a decade with the same spiritual value s/he holds or the theories that are being followed. There might be a slight number of people following religion like Islam in Australia but that will be maintained within a minority with no change just to go with the domination (Christianity). Thus, overseas affects the religion in Australia at the most. Besides, the religious institutions, as well as the openness of the other religion, exposes their principles that might seek the attention of one in a new land which might affect the status over time he/she stay or live in the place. As a whole, Australia is a country of multiculturalism where religious identities are the degrees of a society with the right authorized to people with freedom of religion.
Census in Australia; 2016
Concerning the census conducted in Australia in 2016, Christianity has been a dominant religion that has been followed in Australia. Around 24.6 million of population, 52% of the total population were following Christianity. Some also reported as living in the absence of religion whereas the overall census showed that 120 different are being followed with at least 250 or more followers across the State or territory.
The following table shows the religion being followed in Australia. Regarding the Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2016, it was reported that the total population of Australia in 2016 was 23,401,892 where the respective calculation of major religion is mentioned below:
| Major Religion | Percentage share within the total population |
| Buddhism | 2.41% |
| Christianity | 52.14% |
| Hinduism | 1.88% |
| Islam | 2.58% |
| Judaism | 0.39% |
| Other religion | 0.95% |
| No religion (so described) | 29.63% |
| Secular beliefs | 0.46% |
| Not stated | 9.57% |
Christianity
Christianity being the dominant religion in Australia, Anglican and Catholic are the two major denominations that account for 36% of the total Australian population. The other denominations involve Uniting Church, Presbyterian and reformed, eastern Orthodox, Baptists, and Lutheran.
Conclusion
There are three major subclasses within visa categories of Australia that are skilled independent visa 189, skilled nominated visa 190 and skilled regional nominated visa 489. Similarly, there are various migration programs whereas the migration intake and visa grants are higher which creates an impact in religion followed with the current population of Australia. This creates a huge difference in the religious status of Australia within five years. Thus, with the above report and declaration of no religion status by the people, we can say that Australia is following diversity at the most with a secular environment for the citizens.