From a mostly-Presbyterian city to every faith on Earth
Religious Diversity in Toronto
Toronto's 19th-century religious makeup was overwhelmingly Protestant. The modern city holds functioning places of worship for nearly every major world religion — often inside buildings originally built for a completely different faith.
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Toronto's reputation as one of the most religiously diverse cities in the world is a relatively recent development — as recently as the mid-19th century, its religious makeup looked nothing like it does today.
A mostly-Protestant 19th-century city
In 1851, Protestants made up roughly 73% of Toronto's population, with Roman Catholics at about 25% and only small numbers of Jews, Unitarians and freethinkers rounding out the rest — part of why the city earned the nickname Toronto the Good, a Protestant-inflected moral reputation that stuck for decades.
Immigration reshaped it, building by building
Waves of immigration through the 20th century transformed both the city's religious makeup and, often literally, its buildings. Eastern European Jewish immigrants built the Kiever Synagogue in west Toronto in the 1920s; a Presbyterian church near High Park, built in 1930, was purchased and converted in 1969 into the Jami Mosque; Santa Inês, built in 1913 to serve an Italian Catholic community, now primarily serves a Portuguese congregation — a pattern of a single building serving several different faith communities in succession, decade after decade, as the surrounding neighbourhood's immigrant population changed.
Toronto today
The modern city holds functioning houses of worship for Christianity in all its denominations, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, the Baha'i Faith and more, many of which — mosques especially — double as genuine community centres running settlement services, youth programs and social events well beyond religious observance itself.
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