Religion

Religion in Canada

Canada's religious landscape shifted dramatically between 2001 and 2021. The 2021 Census found that 34.6 percent of Canadians reported no religious affiliation — up from 16.5 percent in 2001, making the non-religious the single largest "group" in the country. Christianity declined from 77 to 53 percent over the same period, while Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism grew rapidly through immigration. The religion map reveals a country divided between a secularizing west coast, a still-Catholic Quebec and Atlantic Canada, and an increasingly multi-faith suburban ring around Toronto and Vancouver.

No Religion

The non-religious population concentrates on Canada's west coast with remarkable consistency. Nine of the ten ridings with the highest non-religious shares are in British Columbia: West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast (64.0%), North Island–Powell River (63.8%), and Nanaimo–Ladysmith (63.7%). Vancouver East (63.0%) is the lone urban entry in a list otherwise dominated by Vancouver Island and BC's interior.

The least non-religious ridings are in Brampton (4.7% in Brampton East) and rural Atlantic Canada (Terra Nova, Acadie–Bathurst). Brampton's intensely religious character reflects its South Asian population — Sikh, Hindu, and Christian — while Atlantic Canada retains its traditional Catholic and Protestant observance.

Christianity

Catholicism remains the largest single denomination in Canada at 29.9 percent. The most Catholic ridings are in francophone New Brunswick and Quebec: Acadie–Bathurst leads at 81.5 percent, followed by Côte-du-Sud–Rivière-du-Loup (76.4%). Though Quebec's Quiet Revolution secularized daily life, most Quebecers still identify as Catholic on the census even if they rarely attend Mass.

Islam

Canada's Muslim population grew to 1.78 million in 2021, up 70 percent from 2011. The highest concentrations are in Montreal's north end and the GTA's inner suburbs: Saint-Léonard–Saint-Michel (26.0%), Mississauga–Erin Mills (25.1%), and Don Valley West (23.3%). Montreal's Muslim community is predominantly Maghrebi (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), while the GTA's includes large South Asian (Pakistani, Bangladeshi) and Somali populations.

Sikhism

The Sikh community — 771,790 in 2021 — is the most geographically concentrated religious group in Canada. Surrey Newton leads at 52.0 percent Sikh, the only riding in Canada where a single non-Christian religion is the majority faith. Brampton East (40.4%) and Brampton South (30.4%) follow. The Sikh community's political influence — particularly in the Surrey and Brampton ridings — far exceeds its 2.1 percent national share.

Judaism

The Jewish community concentrates in two clusters: Thornhill (31.2%) in the GTA and Mount Royal (24.9%) in Montreal. These have been Canada's principal Jewish communities since the mid-20th century, though suburban migration has shifted the GTA centre from downtown Toronto to Thornhill and Vaughan.

Riding Rankings

Most Non-Religious Ridings

British Columbia's dominance is total — all ten are in BC. The province's secular character predates the modern decline of religion; BC has always been Canada's least religious province, a pattern attributed to its frontier settlement history, distance from eastern Canadian institutions, and counter-cultural traditions dating to the 1960s.

Most Catholic Ridings

Acadie–Bathurst leads because the Acadian community of northern New Brunswick maintained its Catholic identity more intensely than Quebec, where secularization has been more thorough. The Quebec ridings on this list retain nominally Catholic populations even as church attendance has collapsed — Catholicism in rural Quebec is as much ethnic identity as religious practice.

Highest Sikh Share

Surrey Newton's 52 percent Sikh population makes it the most religiously concentrated non-Christian riding in Canada. The Sikh community's geographic footprint follows the same two-cluster pattern as the Punjabi language map: the Fraser Valley (Surrey, Abbotsford) and Brampton, with a growing third cluster in Alberta's cities.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population. Riding boundaries reflect the 2022 Federal Electoral Districts. Adapted from Statistics Canada; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.