Census 2022 question on religion

Not sure why the question needs any explanation.

Looks perfectly clear to me.

Are AI just looking for attention, as usual?

I hope everyone is well since I last posted here, and as many as possible have survived the pandemic unscathed. Here's a brief summary of Atheist Ireland's lobbying on the census issue. As an overview, we think the religion question has been slightly improved, but it is still flawed.

During the consultation process, the Census office argued for a minimalist approach to changing the religion question, because they said it was important to compare results from census to census. We had argued that it was more important to get accurate results, rather than to be able to compare one set of flawed results with another.

The old question was ‘What is your religion?’ That was clearly a leading question, that resulted in a higher figure for religion, by assuming that the respondent is a member of a religion. The new question will be ‘What is your religion, if any?’ This is slightly better, but is still implicitly a leading question, as it assumes that religion is the default, and that not having one is an aberration.

The new question is also slightly better than the old one, in that ‘No religion’ will be the first option of the check boxes, instead of the last one which was hidden beneath the write-in box for other religions. This means that people are more likely to see it before they have ticked the check-box based on their childhood religion or cultural identity.

We had argued for the check-boxes to be removed entirely, and for a return to the write-in answer that had been used for a century until the check-boxes were introduced in 2002, and given to the five highest religions from the previous census. These check-boxes overstate those religions that are given a check-box. Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, and Methodist all dropped consistently from the 1960s to the 1990s. When given check-boxes, they all increased in 2002. Methodist doubled when given the check-box in 2002, then halved when it was taken away in 2011.

As the census date approaches, Atheist Ireland will continue to publicise the slight improvement and the underlying flaws in the census question on religion. We are confident that, despite these flaws, the 2022 census will yet again see a significant rise in the number of nonreligious people in Ireland.

No it doesn't add any ambiguity you are just trying very hard to see something that is not there.

The old "what is your religion" is a stupid question because a lot of people don't have one.

I don't even know what you are on about at this stage.

The whole premise of the thread is nonsense. You are clearly just upset that the atheists got something they wanted.

Funny that if I started a similar thread in the catholic section I would be shut down pretty quick on that little bubble

There was a "no religion" box on the census form in 2016; nobody had to write in "no religion". The change this year is that the "no religion" will be the first option, rather than the last, and that the option will be pointed to in the question.

I struggle to believe that more than a tiny, statistically irrelevant number of people thought it was illegal to say "atheist" if they had been baptised. That's a gobsmackingly bizarre belief.

I know. But the thread is about the changes to be made in the 2022 census form, so I thought it was worth making the point that this isn't such a change.