The proportion of people who report being Muslim, Hindu or Sikh in Canada has more than doubled in the last 20 years largely due to immi­gration, Statistics Canada’s recent census data shows.

In 2021, Muslims — the largest religious group after Christians — made up 4.9 percent of Canada’s population of roughly 37 million people compared to just two percent in 2001. During the same time period, the share of Hindus jumped to 2.3 percent from one percent, while the proportion of Sikhs grew to 2.1 percent from 0.9 percent.

“It’s pretty much all coming from immigration, along with higher birth rates amongst immigrants,” says Sarah Wilkins-­Laflamme, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo whose research explores trends in religious identities.

She adds that these religions will continue to grow along with immigration, especially with the federal government promising to accept about half a million newcomers every year through 2025. In keeping with current patterns, many future immigrants are expected to arrive from South Asian countries (particu­larly India), where Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism are common. Still, the overall number of people reporting affiliation to one of these three religions remains relatively low (3.4 million people) compared to those who report Christian affiliation (19.4 million) and no religious affiliation (12.6 million).

While other world religions are growing in Canada, Christianity is on a down­ward trend across all Canadian denominations, except Orthodox Christianity. “In the case of Orthodox Christianity, we’re gaining heavily from immigra­tion from Eastern Europe, Greece and Russia. And moving forward, it looks like — because of the geopolitical sit­uation currently — we’ll be accepting, and have already started accepting, a large number of Ukrainian refugees,” Wilkins­-Laflamme says.

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Religious affiliation will become more diverse across Canada, not just in big cities. Most newcomers still prefer to settle in Toronto, Vancouver and Mont­real, according to census data. Typically, immigrants choose Canada’s major ur­ban centres because there are more job opportunities, better infrastructure and services and existing social networks. However, the overall share of new immigrants who are settling in Canada’s three largest cities is declining. About four percent chose to make their homes in smaller urban areas, and three per­ cent chose rural areas instead.

“I think the high cost of living is pushing everyone out of hot spots, including immigrants,” says Wilkins­-Laflamme. “In areas that haven’t nec­essarily seen much diversity … they’re definitely seeing more in the last year, so that’s a key trend — a move out of the big cities. But that was also helped by the pandemic since some people can do remote work.”

Shaila Carter’s family is all too famil­iar with these trends among immigrant families in Canada. The 48­-year­-old second­-generation Canadian Muslim says her father initially immigrated to Toronto from East Pakistan (now Ban­gladesh) in the late 1960s because that was where “everyone” went. But in 1981, he moved their growing family northwest to Brampton, Ont. — a small, mainly Christian town at the time — to buy a home.