Kimberley, along with the province in general, is growing less religious. StatCan released more census data on Wednesday, October 26, 2022 and it shows that of 7,945 Kimberley residents in private households, 5,210 profess no religion and secular perspectives.
That’s 52.1 per cent who say they are not religious, right on the provincial number. It’s also much higher than the average across Canada, where 34.6 per cent of Canadians report they were non-religious.
The least religious community in the country was Squamish where 70.1 per cent were non-religious. Yukon is the least religious province or territory with 59.7 per cent saying they are non-religious. Newfoundland was the most religious with only 16 per cent non-religious.
Specifically, in Kimberley of the 2,555 people who identify as Christian, there were 364 Anglican, 75 Baptist, 690 Catholic, 60 Jehovah’s Witness, 25 Latter Day Saints, 125 Lutheran, 10 Methodist, 40 Pentecostal, 80 Presbyterian, 465 United Church, 125 other Christian and Christian-related, and 475 who said they were Christian but did not name a denomination.
There were also 45 Buddhist, 20 Hindu, and 105 other religions and spiritual traditions.
Across Canada, the proportion of immigrants is the largest it’s been since Confederation with 23 per cent, or more than 8.3 million people, of the country who were, or had ever been, a landed immigrant or permanent resident.
Those numbers are not so high in Kimberley or the East Kootenay as a whole.
Kimberley’s population is made up of 7,200 non-immigrants and 665 immigrants. Of those immigrants, 250 arrived before 1980, 80 from 1980 to 1990, 60 from 1991 to 2000, 100 from 2001 to 2010, 175 from 2011 to 2021, 65 from 2011 to 2015, and 105 from 2016 to 2021.
95 of the immigrant population is from the Americas, 10 from Mexico, 75 from the United States, 15 from other places of birth in Americas, 400 from Europe, 35 from Africa and 70 from Asia.
In the East Kootenay, there are 57,610 non-immigrants and 5,940 immigrants.