Ballarat City residents have abandoned churches in droves with a sharp rise in the number of people who have declared no religious affiliation.
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Data from the 2016 census revealed the city’s three major churches, Catholic, Anglican and Uniting, have been on a downward trend since 2006.
The Anglican Church recorded the sharpest drop from 14.1 per cent of Ballarat residents to 10.6.
Non-religious people jumped to more than 36.9 per cent, which was a 10 per cent rise since 2011.
The Catholic Church recorded a 3.1 per cent drop, while the Uniting Church dropped 2.5 per cent.
Last year’s census was the first to offer ‘no religion’ as one of the options.
Despite the drop in patronage at churches, religious schools have experienced modest growth.
Fifteen per cent of the school population attend Catholic primary or secondary schools.
Other non-government schools account for 7.7 per cent.
Meanwhile government schools still account for the largest number of students, with 26 per cent attending either public primary or secondary schools, and 4.6 per cent attending technical schools.
Ballarat City has also followed the continued trend of population growth that has been seen right across the state.
Of the state’s regional centres, only Greater Geelong and Greater Bendigo have grown at a faster rate.
From just under 80,000 people 15 years ago, the city has now reached more than 101,000 people.
Contributing to this growth is a slight 2.3 per cent jump in the number of people born overseas.
Migrants now make up 16.3 per cent of the city’s population, up from 13.6 in 2011.
This growth followed a decade of stagnation of the municipality’s migrant population, which increased 1.5 per cent in the decade between 2001 and 2011.