Religious decline, Increased Wealth, Lonelier living (in Australia)
We’re richer but lonelier is the topic of a Sydney Morning Herald article.
I don’t like reading stats in a paragraph, so I put them into a more readable format.
| Item | 1996 | Now (2007) |
|---|---|---|
| Religion | ||
| Christian population | 71% | 64% |
| Claiming No Religion* | 25% | 30% |
| Non Christian Religions | 3.5% | 5.6% |
| Living Arrangements | ||
| Living Alone | 22% | 23% |
| Couples | 71% | 67% |
| Group | 4.1% | 3.7% |
| Families | ||
| Couple – no children | 34% | 37% |
| Couple – with children | 50% | 45% |
| One parent family | 14.5% | 15.8% |
- Note: The No Religion group seems to be implied from the article below. Not sure if that’s accurate.
The data in this table was taken from the above article, although this data seems to be based on another article A snapshot of the 2006 Census.
The Increased Wealth in the articles talks about households earning an extra $200 per week (after inflation adjustments etc) than 10 years ago.
The lonelier living, from their article, I am guessing implied from more couples without kids, and that solo households increased a fraction.
I am not sure how the rest of the world compares to this.
I wonder if there is any correlation between religion diminishing and the number of couples without children?