How Unreligious are the Religious “Nones”? Religious Dynamics of the Unaffiliated in Canada

Authors

  • Sarah Wilkins Laflamme University of Oxford

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/cjs21830

Keywords:

Religion, Canada, Religious nones, Unaffiliated, Secularity, Secularization

Abstract

Increasing rates of religious non-affiliation have been a fundamental transformation of Canadian society since the 1970s. Such increases, present across the West, have received much attention from researchers and sparked much debate. Two competing frameworks identify differing mechanisms behind the rise in individuals declaring having no religion. Secularization theories see this trend as indicating a decline of all things religious. By contrast, individualization theories argue it is only institutional indicators of religiosity which are on the decline, and individually constructed spirituality systems are becoming the norm. Yet, little systematic empirical testing has been done on this subject, especially in the Canadian context. Generating single- and multi-level regression models with data from the Canadian GSS and the ISSP, this paper undertakes a novel comparison of religiosity levels among the unaffiliated between Canadian provinces, between a number of Western nations and regions as well as between age groups.

Author Biography

Sarah Wilkins Laflamme, University of Oxford

M.A. sociology University of Ottawa: completed DPhil sociology student - Nuffield College, University of Oxford

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Published

2015-12-02

Issue

Section

Articles