We welcome the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ statement today that people should answer the religion question accurately and according to their own beliefs.
Our campaign’s central message, as stated on our Census – Not Religious? website, is that people should reflect their authentic selves when answering the religion question.
As the Census is a five-yearly snapshot of the population, we encourage people to answer according to their current beliefs – whether those beliefs are affiliated with a religion or not.
Our campaign encourages people to answer the question honestly and mark ‘No religion’ if they are not religious so as to help deliver more accurate Census data.
As documented on our website, in 2023 the ABS proposed changing the question from the presumptuous ‘What is your religion?’ to the more neutral ‘Do you have a religion?’ in order to “support more accurate data collection”. Internal documents obtained under freedom of information laws show that the ABS acknowledged that the existing question “may lead respondents to a particular response”.
In 2024, after religious lobbyists pressured the Albanese government and the ABS to revert to the original question, further testing was cancelled and the flawed question was retained for the 2026 Census.
New Essential Research polling, commissioned by our campaign, shows that the leading question used in the Census produces a significant undercount of the non-religious population and inflates the religion result – by more than 10 percentage points.
In recent weeks, we’ve been concerned to see extensive misinformation on social media, including people urging others to mark a religion even if they are not religious and warning of the threat of Australia becoming “a Muslim country” if people did not mark themselves as ‘Christian’. We’re also aware of campaigns being run by religious groups, as well as other pro-secular campaigns encouraging people to mark ‘No religion’.
Thousands of people have engaged with our quiz, available through our website, to help them self-assess their religious or spiritual identity. The quiz is entirely consistent with the positioning of the campaign: to encourage people to reflect on their relationship with religion and if they’re not religious, or no longer religious, to mark ‘No religion’. Indeed, the quiz includes the advice: “Please make sure you record your denomination accurately to provide the most useful data for planners and service providers associated with your religion.”
Our campaign messages have reached millions of Australians in the lead-up to the 2026 Census, including through the help of high-profile public figures in Andrew Denton and Jane Caro.
For future Censuses, our campaign is urging the ABS to fix the Census question so that it can provide the real picture of Australia’s relationship with religion. Australians who support this can sign our online petition.
Our campaign is supported by Rationalist Society of Australia, Humanists Australia, National Secular Lobby, Humanists Victoria, Secular Association of NSW, Australian Skeptics (Victoria Branch), and Recovering from Religion Australia.
Our campaign spokesperson, Michael Dove, is available for interviews. Please contact us via: admin@censusnotreligious.org.au