2010 Census - Religion in Singapore

The 2010 Population Census of Singapore has just been released. The following is a graph representing the change in religious affiliation over the past decade. Blue represents the percentage of the population in 2000 and orange for 2010.


From the data, it is clear that all religious categories increased in proportion over the decade with the sole exception of Buddhism. Amongst those experiencing an increase, Christianity, Taoism, Hinduism and people who identify with "no religion" show significant growth. Islam and "other religions" remained relatively stable.

Figures tell that the younger generations are more likely to profess "no religion". The non-religious has seen an increase in proportion across alll age groups. Almost one in four university graduates had no religion - although this figure has fallen from 28.9% (2000) to 24.2% (2010).

The ethnicity of the non-religious seems to be almost completely Chinese, accounting for about 97% of those who profess "no religion". This number account for slightly more than one-fifth of the Chinese population.


Although 17% of Singaporeans identify with "no religion", it is not clear what fraction have reached the position because of skepticism. But in general, it is somewhat promising to see some increase in irreligiosity.

Singapore Census of Population 2010
There are no direct links to/quotes of the document in question due to copyright. The data represented here have been drawn from newspaper publications (The Straits Times, 13 Jan 2011) which presumably have been granted permission to publish these results.

While no direct links are allowed, you may visit SingStats by searching "statistics singapore" on Google. At the site, go to Publications", look for the document in question under "Singapore Census of Population 2010".

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