Hills losing their religion

By Tania Martin
A SNAPSHOT of the hills has shown that the population is increasing and that people are more likely not to have a dedicated religion.
The 2006 Census, which was held on Tuesday, 8 August, has revealed that towns such as Monbulk, Emerald and Mt Dandenong have all had a population increase since 2001.
Emerald has had a population boom over the last five years with 1394 people moving into the area.
While in Monbulk there are 749 more people and Mt Dandenong has had an increase of 96 people.
The 2006 Census has also revealed that people living in the hills are more likely to not have a dedicated religion.
In Emerald 2631 people have said they do not have a religion, which is a 4.4 per cent increase compared to 1878 in 2001.
While in Monbulk 1204 people said they had no religion, which is a 5.6 per cent increase, and Mt Dandenong had a 2 per cent increase with 459 saying no to religion.
According to the Census results, Catholic and Anglican religions are the most popular with hills people.
Statistician Brian Pink said the 2006 Census had been one of the most challenging ever undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Mr Pink said because the strength of the employment market in Australia, the ABS had difficulty recruiting and retaining its field workforce.
He said the growth in the number of busy two-income households, coupled with the increase in occupancy of hire-rise apartment buildings and other security-enabled complexes, made distributing and collecting the Census forms difficult.
“But in spite of these increasing stresses on its operation, the Census was highly successful and produced high quality data,” he said.
“We are already examining ways of dealing with the challenges for the 2011 Census.”
Mr Pink said the first release of data from the Census included a large amount of information about Australia, with much more to come over the next 12 months.
“The data in this release reveals important changes occurring in Australian society, including a further aging population and increasing cultural diversity,” he said.
Mr Pink said the Census was a very power source of high quality information for governments, businesses, community organisations and individuals to use when making decisions.