- 40% of New Zealanders report themselves to be "non-religious"
- Those who reported themselves as Christians declined by over 100,000 compared to 2006
- Anglicans alone lost nearly 100,000 in that period
- Catholicism, although declining as well, has become the largest single religious group in New Zealand
- Some smaller Christian groups and several other minority religions have grown to varying degrees
New Zealand has become, thus, the most secular nation in the English-speaking world. One other finding that is noted is that religious decline there has become generational, that is parents who were raised in nominally Christian homes but didn't go to church much themselves don't go to church at all, and their children are not going to church either. If these trends continue, eventually the church in New Zealand will find itself returning to the state of the early church, that is composed of small groups of followers of Jesus worshipping in house churches. In our time, alternative forms of being the church will also emerge. The question is whether these house churches and other kinds of churches, if it comes to that, can regain the sense of being a movement that attracts others by its faith and love is the central one, of course.
