2025 Australian federal election

@ Daniel T
I think either Hotham or Chisholm has lowest % of born in Australia. Even in your seat of Melbourne there is great variance. In Melbourne CBD it is only around 25% born in Australia while Fitzroy North is about 71% Australian born

You can get the full breakdowns of religious affiliation from the Community Profiles spreadsheets.

@Nimalan no worries, and I can still do other maps. I may consider doing just urban divisions for religion though.

@Laine I had a look at all the Newcastle and Central Coast seats, there it was Hinduism in every seat.

@Nimalan the lowest was actually Parramatta. Only 38.2% of people in the seat of Parramatta were born in Australia. 16.5% were born in India, 7.6% were born in China, 3.1% were born in Nepal, 2.7% were born in Lebanon and 2.2% were born in the Philippines.

Only 31.9% of Parramatta residents spoke only English at home. This is very interesting as it is a marginal seat that the Liberals really could win from Labor (they held the state seat of Parramatta relatively comfortably until 2023 and they still hold Epping and Winston Hills, the latter of which was formerly Seven Hills which was Liberal-held from its creation in 2015 to its abolition in 2023).

The only other seat I recall having less than 40% of the population born in Australia was Fowler where only 39.1% of residents were born in Australia.

Blaxland is perhaps the most interesting seat in terms of religion because it’s actually the only seat where the main religion isn’t either Christianity or no religion. A total of 34.9% of Blaxland’s residents were Muslim according to the 2021 census.

@Nimalan, Hotham has the lowest % of born in Australia reported at 43.1%. Chisholm is reported at 46.6%

By Melbourne standards though

By suburb, it looks like Auburn has the lowest % of English spoken at home at 12.2% (even surpasses by Mandarin and Nepalese) which is interestingly multicultural with large percentages od Chinese (21.8%), Nepalese (12.2%), and Muslim (38.5%) communities just in one suburb,

Downloaded every single community profile and mapped out the largest non-Christian religion in each division as Nether Portal had done before they encountered their bug – https://jmp.sh/wHzjQQDn
Yellow is Buddhism, purple is Hinduism, green is Islam, Orange is Sikhism, blue is Judaism and Red is Indigenous beliefs (obviously indigenous beliefs are not a monolith but the census treats them as such.)

It’s interesting how much regional NSW stands out compared to the other states. And Kennedy and Page are a bit of an odd pairing.

Both Page and Kennedy have long histories of Sikh farmers in the horticulture industry especially bananas, who have been here for many generations, some over 125 years.

@ Nether Portal/Marh thanks for confirming. The only thing i would i caution is Parramatta would have a lot of non citizens especially in the areas like Harris Park which are densely populated. I think suburb with the fewest Australian born would be Haymarket where only 13% are Australian born again it has a lot of international students. Areas like The Ponds or Point Cook will have more South Asian families with Australian born children than places like Harris Park.

@Witness Cowper is the same.

@ Laine
Thanks for doing the map much appreciated looks great. Sometimes i wonder if Eastern Orthodoxy or ethnic forms of Christianity should be considered a minority tradition in which cases the map will change especially Menzies, Jagajaga, Maribiyong Banks, Hughes, Cook and Cooper will change colour.
Like Witness said many Sikhs are involved in the horticulture industry i am actually surprised more seats like Cowper. Dawson and Lyne did not have Sikhism as the main minority religion.
What seats topped for Hindus and Buddhist in the Top 5?

@Laine thanks! Very interesting map indeed.

@Nimalan I’m actually quite surprised Cowper and Lyne didn’t have Hinduism as the top religion. Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie are seeing quite a big influx of Indian immigrants in recent years and population-wise they’ve overtaken Chinese and Thai immigrants. I remember five years ago Port Macquarie had like three Indian restaurants and about 20 Chinese and Thai restaurants, whereas more recently when I was there I noticed that there were way more and there’s even Indian grocer in addition to the small Asian grocer (near the Coles on Shortland Street if I remember correctly).

I would say in 2026 (when the next census will be held), Hinduism will overtake Buddhism in Cowper and Lyne and as of 2024 I think it already has.

@ Nether Portal
Do you mean Hinduism or Sikhism as the top minority religion in those seats. About 25% of Indian born Australians are Sikhs and they often move to regional areas. Shepperton in Victoria is also seeing a growing Sikh community. I am also surprised that Bennelong, Berowra and Bradfield had Hinduism as the main minority religion when those areas typically have a larger Chinese community so i would have expected Buddhism to be the main minority religion.

@Nimalan, Most Chinese don’t tend to have religion due to East Asian societies historically found many of the values and traditions from the philosopher Confucius hence not requiring a prophet. There are some in the East Asian Community that did convert to Christianity.

A lot of Chinese people don’t identify as Buddhist or religious in general even if they follow religious and spiritual practices.

@ Marh/Dan M
Good points, religion does not really form part of ethnic/cultural identity in Chinese communities even if many do follow ancestor veneration or other rituals. This is different to many other cultures where ethnicity and religion are linked for example in the Greek community where i have never one person who does not identify as Greek Orthodox. The areas with largest Buddhist populations seem to be where there is a large concentration of Indochinese and Sri lankans (although Sri Lankans are ethnically/religiously diverse)

Isn’t the State MP for Coffs Harbour of Sikh/Indian descent?

@James yes. Gurmesh Singh is his name. He’s the Nationals MP for Coffs Harbour and lives in Woolgoolga (a town just north of the city itself).

@Nimalan I would’ve thought Hinduism in those seats to be honest but Sikhism might be high too.

But yes, the majority of Chinese, Japanese and Korean people (whether they live in their home country or are diaspora) are mostly “spiritual but not religious”, so they don’t see themselves as religious despite having some spiritual beliefs. To many people and cultures, Buddhism is often more of a spirituality than an actual religion with religious doctrine.

@Nimalan about Greeks, I read somewhere that 91% of Greek Australians identified as Greek Orthodox. Therefore it’s more likely that you’ll find a non-religious Iranian or Lebanese person than a non-religious Greek person.