Religious commitment in Canada’s metro and non-metro areas in 1997

December 2000

Abstract

This study explores the nature of religious commitment of the population aged 15 and over in metro and non-metro areas of Canada's provinces.

Religious commitment is measured by weekly attendance at religious services, at least monthly (regular) attendance, those who say they are "religious", and potential new attendees, which is the religious population that does not attend religious services regularly.

• Regular attendance at religious services ranges from a high of 51% in rural P.E.I. to a low of 21% in Montreal and non-metro B.C.
• The religious population ranges from a high of 72% of the population in non-metro Saskatchewan to a low of 43% in Montreal.
• Potential new attendees range from 42% in Saskatoon to 16% in rural New Brunswick.
• Among faith communities, regular attendance ranges from 29% of French Catholics to 76% of the Pentecostal/Jehovah's Witnesses group. The largest Protestant faiths, United Church and Anglican, had relatively low rates of attendance.
• Potential new attendees were highest for these two Protestant faiths, 123% and 134%, respectively, of the regular attendees in these faiths. Potential new attendees were lowest in the Pentecostal/Jehovah's Witnesses group (22% of regular attendees) and the sum of non-Christian faiths (36%). Not including the 26% of religious people among those with no religious affiliation, the potential new attendees number over five million in Canada, 25% of whom are French Catholics, and 27% of whom are English Catholics.
• Simple models are proposed to account for the interregional variation in three religious commitment variables, and deviations from region predictions are examined.