The 2026 Australian Census is being held on 11 August 2026. However, Census forms and online completion information will be mailed out to you around mid-July and there is the option to complete it earlier than “Census night”.
You are not required to answer the religion question, but religion statistics from the Census are used to inform policies and funding that affect the daily lives of all Australians — for example for schools, hospitals, aged care facilities, universities, places of worship, chaplaincy programs, laws governing religious and non-religious freedoms, allocation of time on public radio and other media, and so on.
Erroneous statistics, along with misleading claims from some religious leaders, can result in unfair policies or inappropriate funding. So, please, do your bit for accurate stats and make sure you answer the question.
The purpose of the Census is to establish the number of Australians following the beliefs and practices of specific religious creeds. If you believe in a general ‘higher power’ but don’t follow the tenets of a specific religion, mark ‘No religion’.
Many people identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’. By definition, this means you are not religious. Therefore, you should answer ‘No religion’ on the Census.
If you firmly and actively believe the teachings and positions of your denomination’s leading clerics, then it would be appropriate to mark that religion.
However, if you doubt or disagree with leading clerics, then you could answer ‘No religion’. The Census question is asking about your current relationship with religion. So, if you are currently not religious, mark ‘No Religion’.
If possible, let them answer for themselves. Record their answer even if it is different to your answer.
Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion is a fundamental right that belongs to everyone – including children.
If they haven’t decided, or are too young to decide, the most appropriate answer is ‘No religion’.
If your family historically regards itself as Catholic, Anglican, Islamic, Baptist, Hindu or any other religion, but you don’t really follow or practise that religion — or any other religion — then mark ‘No religion’.
If you are concerned about family or other household members seeing your answer, make sure you fill out your own Census form privately, rather than using the household-wide form.
Through the Australian Bureau of Statistics, you can request an individual form. This will allow your response to override any other form completed by another person on your behalf. Find out more about personal forms here.
It is your right to decide whether you have a religion or not.
No. While these are types of worldview, they don’t rely on metaphysical or supernatural explanations of the world. If you hold any of these world views, mark ‘No religion’.
No. Answers such as ‘Pastafarian’, ‘Jedi’, ‘beer’ or ‘chocolate’ are reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as ‘Inadequately described’. Therefore, they do not provide meaningful data and are not separately recorded or reported. If you are not religious, mark ‘No religion’ instead.
No. If you attend a wedding, funeral, or baptism in a place of worship, this is a social event in support of family and friends. You may count yourself as religious if you attend a place of worship purely for worship itself.
The ‘Census – Not Religious? Mark ‘No Religion’ campaign is run by a coalition of pro-secular Australian groups (Rationalist Society of Australia, Humanists Australia, National Secular Lobby, Humanists Victoria, Secular Association of NSW, and Recovering From Religion Australia), with support from Skeptics Australia (Victoria). Links for all these groups can be found on our About page.
Yes, this group ran a similar campaign in 2021 which reached millions of Australians. We have since relocated our campaign website from censusnoreligion.org.au to its new home at censusnotreligious.org.au, in line with our campaign name.
No, we’re not telling people how to fill in their census form. Our campaign’s aim is to encourage people to consider their current relationship with religion before providing an answer to the Census question on religion. While the Census is supposed to reflect the current make-up of Australian society, many people answer this question based on their upbringing or give a culture-based response out of habit. We want to encourage personal reflection in order to improve the accuracy and relevance of the Census’s religion data.
The Census is run every five years to provide data on Australian society that is accurate and current. Governments at all levels, public institutions, researchers, and others use census data to form policies and make decisions about the use of public funding and the representation of community voices. Achieving more accuracy in this data will deliver greater fairness for all Australians.
It’s not just us: the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) itself agrees! The question we’re currently asked in the Census – “What is the person’s religion?” – is a ‘leading’ question that assumes everyone has a religion. This presumptuous wording, along with a tendency for people to respond based on upbringing or culture rather than their current relationship with religion, leads to inaccurate responses that understate the number of non-religious people in Australia. The ABS was on track to test and implement an updated question for 2026 but following government delays and pro-religious lobbyists, they did not implement the change.