New report paints picture of Catholic Church

There were fewer Catholics in Australia in 2016 than in 2011, but they were more likely to have a higher education and more likely to have been born overseas than five years earlier.

The National Centre for Pastoral Research (NCPR) recently released the Social Profile of the Catholic Community in Australia, based on information contained in the 2016 Census. Census data already released outlined the drop in the number of people identifying as Catholic from 5,439,267 in 2011 to 5,291,834 in 2016. As a proportion of the total Australian population, the Catholic percentage dropped from 25.3 per cent to 22.6.

The Social Profile, however, offers a much deeper understanding of the Catholic population on a range of measures, including education, employment, income, birthplace, language and disability.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge said the Social Profile is one of the key tools bishops use to understand the Catholic community and will be a help in planning for the Plenary Council.

Click here to access the report.

Source: Plenary Council 2020