If you’re not religious, say so! We’re encouraging people to tick the ‘no religion’ option on the 2021 Census. Below you can find out more about one aspect of this campaign.
Pledge to tick ‘no religion’ ✅
Every ten years the Census is undertaken in order to collect statistics about the population. These stats are used to help national and local governments make important policy decisions about spending and the allocation of other state resources. However, in the past, the so-called religion question has always undercounted the non-religious. This is a big problem!
We are encouraging people to tick ‘No religion’ (in England and Wales) or ‘None’ (in Northern Ireland) on the Census because the question is deliberately leading. It encourages people to state that they are religious even if they do not practise or believe in a religion. Therefore, the data gathered in past censuses has provided a wholly inaccurate representation of religiosity in the UK, with an overrepresentation of Christians and an underrepresentation of the non-religious.
We believe, based on evidence gathered elsewhere, that the majority of people in the UK do not consider themselves to belong to any religion, at nor practise or believe in a religion. We know this because surveys like the British Social Attitudes Survey more neutrally ask ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion? If yes, which?’ In 2018 it recorded 52 percent of respondents as belonging to no religion. It’s been asking the same question, year on year, since 1983. In contrast, the England and Wales Census presumes with its leading question ‘What is your religion?’ that the respondent has a religion. In 2011 it saw only 25 percent of people tick ‘No religion’. On the face of it then, the Census halved the number of non-religious people.
This is a problem because this data is used by policymakers to:
- Increasing the number of faith schools
- Enforcing compulsory Christian worship in schools
- Contracting out public services to religious organisations who can discriminate against non-religious or LGBT service users
- Preserving 26 bishops who vote in Parliament
- Opting religious groups out of equality laws and other new legislation
- Making even more religious-only programming on the BBC, such as Thought for the Day.
Consequently, we urge all people who are not religiously believing or practising to tick the ‘no religion’ option! This is the only way in which we can make sure the results are a fair representation of the prevalence of the UK today. A fair reflection would be integral towards building a more inclusive future.
So if you’re not religious, say so!