Census question on religion may be rethought after NSS campaign

It is reported that the Government is considering rephrasing the census question about religion after complaints from the National Secular Society that the question in the 2001 Census led to a vast overestimate of the number of religious people in Britain.

The optional question in the last Census asked “What is your religion?” Ministers are now considering changing this to “Do you regard yourself as belonging to a religion?” Those answering “yes” would then be asked to identify that religion.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said: “When the Government was consulting on the census question we sent in a detailed response pointing out how the leading question had distorted the result. Read it here.