Ep 119 - The Changing Religious Landscape in Canada - Dr. Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme
Episode 119 of The New Leaf Project is here!
In this week's conversation, Dr Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, Professor in Sociology at the University of Waterloo, shares with us the ethnocultural and religious take-aways from the 2021 Canadian Census, released at the end of 2022.
Sarah gives expert data interpretation to those parsing through this invaluable religious affiliation data for Canadians. She unpacks all the major findings, including the unexpected data that non-religious Canadians have more than doubled in the past 20 years — to 34.6 percent, up from 16.5 percent in 2001. She discusses that though Christianity remains the majority religion in Canada, only 53 percent of the population reported an affiliation with a Christian religion, down 14 percent from 2011 and 24 percent from 2001. Sarah helps us understand the ways these numbers shift as we move East to West, what Stats Can researchers were surprised by, and how every denomination in Canada, mainline and evangelical, is in rapid decline.
Rather than closing off our minds to the data of decline and disruption, what would happen if we open up and learn what fellow Canadians are saying about their religious beliefs? How could this data open up conversation and connection? Can this learning help us attune to our cultural moment as Christians in Canada?
This episode is full of Canadian-specific data and content and is helpful for leaders, pastors, planters and Jesus followers who desire to reflect on their own contexts and the ways that our society is shifting away from Christianity
Dr. Sarah Wilkins-LaFlamme is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She completed her DPhil (PhD equivalent) in sociology at the University of Oxford in 2015. Her research interests include quantitative methods, sociology of religion, immigration and ethnicity as well as political sociology. Dr. Wilkins-Laflamme is co-author of None of the Above: Nonreligious Identity in the US and Canada withNew York University Press, and has also published 24 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters to date.
Show Notes, Links and Resources:
Stats Canada Religious Data - https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026b-eng.htm?utm_source=twt&utm_medium=smo&utm_campaign=statcan-2021census-diss-ethnocultural-en
Religion, Non-Belief, Spirituality and Social Behaviour among North American Millennials: https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/15102
Religion, Spirituality and Secularity among Millennials: The Generation Shaping American and Canadian Trends: https://www.amazon.ca/Religion-Spirituality-Secularity-among-Millennials/dp/1032109211
Find Sarah on Twitter: @swilk033
