andrewhong.net

So. How are we going at reaching the Chinese in Australia?

Earlier this year the ABS released Perspectives on Migrants 2007, and part of it contains information that correlates birthplace and religion. It’s based on the 2006 ABS census, and you can find it on this page at the ABS website. This reveals the religion of those living in Australia who were born in China, and Hong Kong.

First off, a pie chart of the religious belief of Australian residents born in China.

And here is a pie chart showing the religious belief of Australian residents born in Hong Kong.

Because the Chinese aren’t culturally predisposed to identify themselves as Christians (compared to Anglo Aussies, say) these figures for Christianity are a lot more believable than the Christianity figures for the general population.

And so it’s quite encouraging to see how many people born in Hong Kong call themselves Christians – 38.6% of the whole! But by comparison we still have a long way to go with people born in China – only 15.1% identify themselves as Christians. And of course, these figures don’t include the second-generation Chinese
- those who are ethnically Chinese, but who were born here in Australia.

The ABS’ Census Ethnic Media Package provides even greater detail, and from that we can see the following:

Country of birth	Religion	Percentage	Persons
China	No religion	58.1%	119,501
	Buddhism	17.6%	36,278
	Christianity	15.1%	31,111
	Hinduism	0.0%	14
	Islam	0.3%	522
	Judaism	0.1%	262
	Other religions	0.2%	379
	Not stated	8.6%	17,709
	Total		205,857
Hong Kong	No religion	43.3%	30,997
	Buddhism	10.6%	7,579
	Christianity	38.6%	27,635
	Hinduism	0.2%	121
	Islam	0.2%	119
	Judaism	0.1%	47
	Other religions	0.3%	213
	Not stated	6.8%	4,846
	Total		71,557

What’s also interesting to observe from this is that the primary worldview that we are dealing with, for both people born in China and Hong
Kong, is ‘no religion’ (58.1% of residents born in China, and 43.3% of
residents born in Hong Kong). Buddhism, by comparison, only accounts
for 17.6% and 10.6% of residents born in China and Hong Kong respectively.

[ PS: it's also interesting to see the figures for the other countries... ]