Seven in ten British Columbians are not religious and over a quarter are atheists. Yet very few people openly identify as Humanists. The core mission of the BC Humanist Association is to promote the ideas and philosophy of Humanism by all available means of education and communication. We do this through our public meetings, advertising campaigns, social media, letters to the editor, engaging with politicians, and research into the state of non-religion in British Columbia.
Statistics Canada's 2011 National Household Survey (formerly the long-form census) found that 44% of the people in BC say they have no religion. However, the data quality of the National Household Survey has been questioned since it was made voluntary in 2011 and it has historically over-inflated the number of religious respondents because it asks what religion a person is “even if they are not currently a practicing member of that group.” Read our press release from the release the 2011 National Household Survey.
Our 2013 poll found that 64% of British Columbians do not practice a religion or faith and 20% do not believe in a higher power (9% don't know). See the full results from our 2013 BC Religious and Secular Values poll.
By 2016, 69% of British Columbians said they do not practice a religion or faith and 26% said they do not believe in a higher power. See the full results from our 2016 BC Religious and Secular Values poll.
Latest news
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· October 26, 2022
The BC Humanist Association is celebrating the latest data from the Census shows that 52.1% of British Columbians are non-religious. This is a reflection of the growing trend of people in BC and across Canada who are choosing to live their lives without religion. In the 2011 National Household Survey...
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· November 02, 2020
The BC Humanist Association has created two guides to discuss issues that humanists and other non-religious people may encounter around the ends of their lives. This guide, on Memorials & Grief, is for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) and living with the death of a loved one, or simply interested...
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· October 20, 2020
End of life care in Canada has historically been a field of medicine steeped in religion, believed to be the work of Christian chaplains—not doctors—for the purpose of preparing for an afterlife. With a growing number of non-religious people in the world and the multiculturalism of Canada, the landscape of...
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· July 28, 2020
Statistics Canada calls the census "the country's storyteller" but the accuracy of that story depends deeply on the quality of the questions being asked of Canadians. For years, Humanists, atheists and other nonreligious Canadians have been concerned by the wording of the question that Statistics Canada includes in the census....
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· April 18, 2019
A new poll from ResearchCo has found that only 3% of British Columbians say they attend religious services "at least once a week." Only 2% said they had "confessed or sought advice from a religious figure" in the past 12 months. The poll also found that 29% of people in...
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· August 02, 2016
Pride Week has just ended in Vancouver and for the sixth straight year members of the BC Humanist Association joined the annual Vancouver Pride Parade to show our solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. This year, we built on our strengths. It was the first year that many of our supporters...
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· June 13, 2016
Update (Aug 22, 2016): You can download the full results here. Seven in ten British Columbians are non-religious and over a quarter don’t believe in a higher power according to a new poll by Insights West commissioned by the BC Humanist Association. This is an increase from the 64% of people...
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Blog by Gordon Leslie
· April 25, 2016
I helped out at the Vaisakhi Day celebrations with the Tarksheel Society yesterday. It was an invaluable experience. By noon we had over 100 visitors, and there were many others who gave us the thumbs up on their way by. I asked one of my co-volunteers and he confirmed that...
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· October 07, 2015
Classes have been under a way for about a month and across British Columbia students are building new communities for atheist, skeptic and Humanist. I wanted to give a quick update on where some of the groups are, and how the donations BCHA members made have helped us support them.
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· September 02, 2015
Students across British Columbia will be returning to classes next week. For many it will be their first time living away from home and for some it will their first time being exposed to new ideas and worldviews. Religious clubs are well established at BC universities (there are 20 different religious...
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