Australian Bureau of Statistics Census 2021 figures released on Tuesday showed a decline in religious affiliation across the entire country over a five year period, with Wagga joining the trend.

Responding to the August 10, 2021, national census, 31.3 per cent of Wagga LGA residents ticked "no religion" when asked to chose a religious affiliation, up from 22.2 per cent in 2016.

Wagga Baptist Church Pastor David Strong described his own reflection on the decline in local and national religiosity as a moment of "personal grief".

"Because I think the most beautiful thing in the world is to know God - it's the most precious thing that I've got," he said.

"Yeah, it can fill me with a sense of grief."

Pastor Strong acknowledged the trend is not new, with the current 31.3 per cent of Wagga residents with no religious affiliation now more than tripling the 9.4 per cent of respondents with the same answer in 2001.

"I think there's a kind of cultural momentum ... where [people] think that intellectually, maybe it's not tenable to have faith in God," he said.

"Of course, I don't accept that, in fact, I think quite the opposite.

For the first time in the Wagga LGA, "no religion" was the top response to the census question, followed by Catholic at 27.1 per cent, Anglican at 15.3 per cent, not stated at 6.4 per cent, and Presbyterian and Reformed at 3.8 per cent.

Notably, those locally chosen religious affiliations still reflect considerably higher percentages than the national and state responses.

Wagga Catholic Diocese Bishop Mark Edwards said the newly released figure don't surprise him.

"It's been coming for a long time," he said.

"I don't celebrate that people aren't connecting with the churches.

"In another sense, I'm actually quite excited about the possibilities of connecting with people around their search for meaning."

Bishop Edwards said that while the statistics might demonstrate less affiliation with religion, they don't necessarily mean less spirituality.

"There's certainly a degree of disconnect around churches at this stage," he said.

"But it's really, in some ways, the most exciting time ever to be a Catholic minister in Australia."

With this sense of optimism, Bishop Edwards saw the figures as an opportunity.

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"What it means is that an enormous number of people in Australia and in our own LGA are actually on a journey," he said.

"They're pilgrims, they're looking for something.

"And so here's an opportunity for us to offer them an accompaniment on that spiritual journey."

According to Wagga's sixth appointed bishop, religious leaders have been and must continue to find new ways to pass on faith in the "new era".

"What we did [previously] doesn't work now, it's a different world," Bishop Edwards said.

"I think the future of the Catholic Church largely lies in the hands of people who aren't in the church at the moment."

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