While Catholocism is the most followed religion in both towns, just under 40 per cent of Moama’s population reported subscribing to no religion, and 42.7 per cent of Echuca’s population responded the same way.
It’s up from 27 per cent of people in Moama saying they followed no religion in 2016, and 31 per cent in Echuca.
For the first time since the Census began, more than half of Australians said they did not follow a religion. More than 43 per cent said they were Christian.
Australian statistician Dr David Gruen AO said despite the religion question being the only voluntary question, there was a rise in responses.
“Census religion data shows a characteristic of Australia that has changed significantly over the past two decades,” he said.
“We saw an increase in the proportion of people answering the question, from 91 per cent in 2016 to 93 per cent in 2021.”
Other statistics showed Moama’s median age of residents is slightly older than that of Echuca’s, according to the 2021 Census data.
The median age of community members living in Moama has been recorded as 49 years old, whereas Echuca’s population has been listed as slightly younger at 45.
There are 15,636 people living in Echuca and 6930 in Moama.
In Moama, males account for 48.5 per cent of the population and females make up 51.5 per cent.
Forty-eight per cent of Echuca residents are male, while 52.1 per cent are female.
In Moama, 3.2 per cent of community members are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
The non-Indigenous population in Moama equates to 91.3 per cent and 5.6 per cent of respondents selected not to specify whether they were Indigenous or not.
Echuca’s Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander population accounts for 4.1 per cent, the non-Indigenous population accounts for 90.4 per cent and 5.5 per cent of Echuca’s population chose not to specify.
In terms of ancestry, citizens from both Echuca and Moama listed Britain as the top country of traceable family heritage, followed by Australia and Ireland.
In Moama, 10.3 per cent of citizens have or had parents who were born overseas, which is in similar fashion to Echuca’s result of 10.5 per cent.
In relation to marital status, majority of survey takers were married.
According to Census data, there was a higher percentage per population of recorded marriages in Moama than Echuca.
Three thousand two hundred and twelve people (55.9 per cent) in Moama are married, 1407 people (24.5 per cent) have reported themselves as never married and 522 people (9.1 per cent) are divorced.
In Echuca, 5858 people (45 per cent) have identified themselves as being married, followed by 4333 people (33.3 per cent) who have never been married and 1320 people (10.1 per cent) are divorced.
For more information on the census, visit https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/search-by-area