338Canada: Survey on religion reveals a nation of no-gos

MONTREAL, Que. — How often have you attended a religious service in the past three months?

If your answer is “never” you’re in the majority, according to a new survey of Canadians from EKOS Research Associates. In fact, only 19 percent of survey respondents said they’d joined a service more than once during that time frame.

The survey was inspired by new census data from Statistics Canada showing that 68 percent of Canadians claimed a religious affiliation in 2021, down from 90 percent in 1985.

By comparison, almost 70 percent of Americans identify as religious.

— The bigger picture: The federal government recently announced its plan to bring almost 1.5 million immigrants to Canada in the next three years, and an average of 500,000 per year until the end of the decade.

Many of those newcomers will come from countries where religion occupies a far greater aspect of everyday life. The EKOS poll reveals the landscape as they arrive.

— The biggest no-gos: In Quebec, three in four respondents said they had not attended worship in the period surveyed. Just 10 percent said they’d been more than once.

— Elsewhere in the country: In every polling region, a majority said they’d been no-shows. The majorities were lowest in Alberta (61 percent) and the Atlantic provinces (60 percent).

Among those who reported that they’d attended more than once, proportions ranged from 19 percent in British Columbia to 34 percent in Alberta.

The same poll asked respondents about their federal voting intentions — this at a time when Conservatives hold a narrow lead over the Liberals.

Here’s what the survey tells us about the Canadians who said they’d not attended service: Eighty-one percent were NDP voters; 71 percent were Liberals; 57 percent were Conservatives.

Bloc Québécois and Green Party voters appear on the graph for information purposes, but the sample size for each is less than 100 respondents, which makes the margin of error high.

EKOS asked respondents about their attachment to religion and found 40 percent consider it "very important" or "somewhat important” — a number that ranges from 38 percent in British Columbia to 50 percent in Alberta. In Quebec, it was 27 percent.

The breakdown by voting intention suggests NDP (23 percent), Bloc (26 percent) and Green Party (28 percent) voters are significantly less religious than the national average. Half of Conservative voters (52 percent) said religion is important in their lives.

The EKOS survey also tried to measure what fraction of Canadians adhere to the theory of creationism.

Some 58 percent of respondents said “humans have evolved according to the process of natural selection” — that is, without divine intervention. At 7 percent, Quebec featured the highest proportion of respondents who agreed with natural selection. In the Atlantic provinces, 47 percent of respondents hold this view. Elsewhere in the country it ranged from 53 to 57 percent.

Almost 20 percent of Canadians say they believe “humans were created by God in the last 10,000 years.” Quebec (13 percent) and British Columbia (15) bring down the national average; Alberta (26 percent), the other Prairie provinces and the Atlantic provinces (24 percent) bring it up.

NDP voters (74 percent) were found more likely than the national average to agree with the scientific consensus.

The EKOS survey adds to a myriad of statistical studies that show religion occupies little space in the lives of Canadians.

In a study of 148 countries by the Global Business Policy Institute in 2020 on the importance of religion, Canada ranked 121st, second last in the Americas. According to that study, Canadians are closer to Cubans than to Americans on matters of faith.