Christianity in Canada

The majority of Canadian Christians attend church services infrequently. Cross-national surveys of religiosity rates such as the Pew Global Attitudes Project indicate that, on average, Canadian Christians are less observant than those of the United States but are still more overtly religious than their counterparts in Western Europe. In 2002, 30% of Canadians reported to Pew researchers that religion was "very important" to them. A 2005 Gallup poll showed that 28% of Canadians consider religion to be "very important" (55% of Americans and 19% of Britons say the same).^[3] Regional differences within Canada exist, however, with British Columbia and Quebec reporting especially low metrics of traditional religious observance, as well as a significant urban-rural divide, while Alberta and rural Ontario saw high rates of religious attendance. The rates for weekly church attendance are contested, with estimates running as low as 11% as per the latest Ipsos-Reid poll and as high as 25% as per Christianity Today magazine. This American magazine reported that three polls conducted by Focus on the Family, Time Canada and the Vanier Institute of the Family showed church attendance increasing for the first time in a generation, with weekly attendance at 25 per cent. This number is similar to the statistics reported by premier Canadian sociologist of religion, Prof. Reginald Bibby of the University of Lethbridge, who has been studying Canadian religious patterns since 1975. Although lower than in the US, which has reported weekly church attendance at about 40% since the Second World War, weekly church attendance rates are higher than those in Northern Europe.

As well as the large churches — Roman Catholic, United, and Anglican, which together count more than half of the Canadian population as nominal adherents — Canada also has many smaller Christian groups, including

Canada as a nation is becoming increasingly religiously diverse, especially in large urban centres such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, where minority groups and new immigrants who make up the growth in most religious groups congregate. Two significant trends become clear when the current religious landscape is examined closely. One is the loss of 'secularized' Canadians as active and regular participants in the churches and denominations they grew up in, which were overwhelmingly Christian, while these churches remain a part of Canadians' cultural identity. The other is the increasing presence of ethnically diverse immigration within the religious makeup of the country.

As Mainline

There was a major religious revival in Toronto in the 1990s known as the

A 2015 study estimates some 43,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in Canada, most of whom belong to the evangelical tradition.[15]

Province/Territory	Christians
Newfoundland and Labrador	82.44%[16]
Nunavut	73.53%[17]
Prince Edward Island	67.62%[18]
New Brunswick	67.52%[19]
Quebec	64.82%[20]
Nova Scotia	58.18%[21]
Saskatchewan	56.31%[22]
Manitoba	54.23%[23]
Northwest Territories	55.16%[24]
Canada	53.33%[25]
Ontario	52.14%[26]
Alberta	48.11%[27]
Yukon	35.01%[28]
British Columbia	34.27%[29]

Christian denominations in Canada
Canadian interchurch Canadian Council of Churches Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America North Am. Presbyterian and Reformed Council
Friends Canadian Mennonite Brethren Churches Canadian Yearly Meeting (Quakers) Mennonite Church Canada
Baptist & Stone-Campbell Association of Regular Baptist Churches Baptist General Conference of Canada Canadian Baptist Ministries Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists Fellowship of Evgcl. Baptist Churches, Canada North American Baptist Conference Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Evangelical Christian Church in Canada
Anglican & Catholic Anglican Church of Canada Anglican Church in North America Polish National Catholic Church Catholic Church in Canada Ukrainian Catholic, Winnipeg
Pietist Christian and Missionary Alliance, Canada Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Free Church of Canada Baptist General Conference of Canada The Salvation Army Wesleyan Church
Lutheran Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Lutheran Church–Canada Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
Methodist British Methodist Episcopal Church Free Methodist Church in Canada United Church of Canada
Oriental Orthodox Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, N.Am. Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Canada Orthodox Church in America American-Canadian Macedonian Orthodox Diocese Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada Armenian Apostolic Diocese of Am. Coptic Orthodox Church in Canada
Pentecostal Apostolic Church of Pentecost Canadian Assemblies of God Church of God of Prophecy Intl. Foursquare Gospel, Canada Intl. Pentecostal Holiness Church Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada Pentecostal Church of God United Pentecostal Church Intl.
Reformed Canadian and American Reformed Churches Christian Reformed Church in North America L'Église réformée du Québec Presbyterian Church in Canada Presbyterian Church in America Reformed Church in America United Church of Canada
Other Evangelical Orthodox Church Messianic Jewish Alliance of America Plymouth Brethren Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada LDS Church Vineyard Canada Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada
v t e

Christian denominations in Canada are usually divided into two large groups:

Protestantism in Canada has existed ever since parts of northern Canada were colonized by the English.

The Amish population in Canada as of 2018, is 5,375.

In mid-1870s Hutterites moved from Europe to the Dakota Territory in the United States to avoid military service and other persecutions.^[32] During World War I Hutterites suffered from persecutions in the United States because they are pacifist and refused military service.^[33][34] They then moved almost all of their communities to Canada in the Western provinces of Alberta and Manitoba in 1918.^[34] In the 1940s, there were 52 Hutterite colonies in Canada.^[34]

Today, more than 75% of the world's Hutterite colonies are located in Canada, mainly in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the rest being almost exclusively in the United States.^[35] The Hutterite population in North America is about 45,000 people.^[36]

Mennonites first arrived in Canada in 1786 from Pennsylvania, but following Mennonites arrived directly from Europe.^[37] The Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches had 37,000 members across 250 congregations,^[38] and the Mennonite Church Canada had about 35,000 members in 212 congregations in 1998.^[39]

The Catholic Church in Canada, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and the

Adherents of

Adherents of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has had a presence in Canada since its organization in New York State in 1830.^[42] Canada has been used as a refuge territory by members of the LDS Church to avoid the anti-polygamy prosecutions by the United States government.^[43] The first LDS Church in Canada was established in 1895 in what would become Alberta; it was the first stake of the Church to be established outside the United States.^[44] The LDS Church has founded several communities in Alberta.

In 2011, the LDS Church of Canada claimed around 200,000 members; the 2011 Canadian National Household Survey calculates around 100,000.^[45] It has congregations in all Canadian provinces and territories and possess at least one temple in six of the ten provinces, including the oldest LDS temple outside the United States. Alberta is the province with the most members of the LDS Church in Canada, having approximately 40% of the total of Canadian LDS Church members and representing 2% of the total population of the province (the National Household survey has Alberta with over 50% of the Canadian Mormons and 1.6% of the province's population^[45]), followed by Ontario and British Columbia.^[46]

Christian Canadians

Ethnic

groups (2001−2021)

	2021 [1][47]		2011 [48]		2001 [49]
	Population	%	Population		Population	%
European	14,908,365	76.95%	18,588,045	84.1%	20,309,200	88.87%
African	1,068,800	5.52%	720,230	3.26%	523,715	2.29%
Filipino	898,050	4.64%	497,450	2.25%	300,025	1.31%
Indigenous	849,815	4.39%	889,315	4.02%	804,430	3.52%
Latin American	427,065	2.2%	322,675	1.46%	193,440	0.85%
Chinese	347,245	1.79%	318,935	1.44%	274,350	1.2%
South Asian	245,035	1.26%	185,345	0.84%	124,320	0.54%
Multiracial	147,375	0.76%	87,380	0.4%	39,395	0.17%
Arabs	135,390	0.7%	95,590	0.43%	65,790	0.29%
Koreans	127,190	0.66%	111,350	0.5%	76,235	0.33%
Southeast Asians	104,045	0.54%	92,775	0.42%	55,430	0.24%
West Asians	35,965	0.19%	15,100	0.07%	8,450	0.04%
Japanese	19,235	0.1%	24,190	0.11%	24,605	0.11%
Other Ethnicity	59,755	0.31%	54315	0.25%	52,410	0.23%
Total Christian Canadian Population	19,373,330	100%	22,102,700	100%	22,851,825	100%

Christianity first arrived in the territory later known as Canada in 1497, when the Catholic, John Cabot, landed on Newfoundland, raised the Venetian and Papal banners and claimed the land for his sponsor King Henry VII of England, while recognizing the religious authority of the Roman Catholic Church.^[40] A letter of John Day states that Cabot landed on 24 June 1497 and "he landed at only one spot of the mainland, near the place where land was first sighted, and they disembarked there with a crucifix and raised banners with the arms of the Holy Father and those of the King of England".^[50] In 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded the first Catholic colony in Quebec City.

• Demographics of Canada
• History of religion in Canada
• Religion in Canada
• Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches