Everyone knows that the Census question on religion is biased. It assumes everyone has a religion! Now, we have an opportunity to tell the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to fix the problems with the question. 

Please help by making a submission to the ABS review into the religion question. The public has until 18 November to make submissions here on the ABS website.

As a member of the coalition behind the Census21 – Not Religious? campaign, we support the campaign’s submission, which recommended that the ABS change the current question – “What is the person’s religion?” – to remove the loaded bias.

We argue that, at a minimum, the ABS should re-word the question and insert ‘if any’ as a qualifying suffix – to make the question: “What religion does the person belong to, if any?” 

A preferred approach, however, would be to use a two-part question: a) “Does the person have a religion?” b) “What is the person’s religion?”
 

Given the importance of Census results to policy decisions, it’s crucial for governments and other organisations to have access to accurate data. 

Yet the Census is failing Australians because the religion question is clearly biased in assuming that all people are religious. As a result, the Census continues to overstate the importance of religion in Australia. Read our full statement here on our website.

If you make a submission to the ABS, feel free to share it with us. We'd be keen to read it.

Thanks for your support.

In solidarity,