The sociology of religion has tended to ignore the phenomenon of nonreligious persons. The Canadian census has always collected data on religious identity, but it was not until 1971 that a separate response category of “no religion” was provided. At that time, of all Canadians over the age of 15, 4.44% reported they had “no religion.” The distribution of persons with “no religion” suggests it is negatively correlated with age, it is more common among males than females, and among urban than rural populations. The most dramatic demographic pattern is the discrepancy in rates of “no religion” between eastern, central, and western Canada. The exceptionally high rates in British Columbia are not due to age-sex structure, urbanization, or ethnicity, and remain a subject of speculation.
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