Census Reflections & Beyond

[Orphia Nay]

Thanks for the survey link, Bolero!

I put my two cents in.

"The Religion question should ask "What religion does the person currently practise?"
And the option for "No Religion" should be at the top, as it is in New Zealand and the UK. With it currently at the bottom it can be easily missed.
The numbers on the census do not reflect the numbers of people actually attending services."

[DanDare]

Originally Posted by crocoduck

So if it is an (other) religion we can claim tax exemptions on it?? It says it is a religion on a government document.

Sadly, the ATO only counts religions that worship supernatural deities for tax exemption.

[Glob]

Originally Posted by BlueDevil

At Bolero's suggestion I too have visited the webpage suggested by Glob where you will find a link to the ABS survey. I would strongly urge you all to do likewise if you want to see the religion question changed. I am sure that the more people they hear from the greater the chances of action on this.

At that page you will find a short and simple survey that will let you have your say on the religion question. Here is a sample of what I wrote in a couple of the sections:

If I could change one thing for the 2016 Census, it would be:
I would like to change the current religion question since it assumes that a person has a religion by asking "What is the person’s religion" and then placing no religion at the bottom of the list. This clearly creates a bias towards a religious answer. This is evident from the fact that New Zealand reports a much higher number of No Religion responses (despite being a very similar society to Australia) and has the No Religion option at the top of the list (despite being a very similar society to Australia). The question should also make it clear that the respondent should report their CURRENT religious viewpoint not just that of their upbringing. I would suggest a two part question as such:


Part 1. Does the person CURRENTLY follow a religion? Ans: No or Yes



Part 2. If you answered Yes to the above question then state which religion you follow: Ans: List of the various religions provided as per the current question





Other feedback or comments::
It is clear that many people answer the religion question by stating the religion they were baptised into, or brought up in etc. As such many respondents who no longer follow a religion continue to state that they do. There is much anecdotal evidence for this. There is also some objective evidence since only around 7% of Australians attend church regularly, around 70% of marriages now use a civil celebrant, and church commissioned surveys put the numbers of non believers at around the 30% mark. There is no doubt that the Australian Census data is flawed and it is of no benefit to anyone for this situation to continue. Collection of accurate data is paramount.

If you agree with what I have said feel free to use what I have done but possibly make a few adjustments so it doesn't look like a mass produced effort.

Another possibility would be to see whether the AFA are happy to share with us how they would prefer the question to be phrased and we could all send in much the same sort of suggestion.

I am not sure as yet as to whether it is possible to do this survey more than once, but it is a possibility I will checkout!

When I did the survey, I said pretty much the same thing i.e. "Yes" or "No" option (with "No" as the first option), and then a list of religions to choose from if "Yes".

As for the wording of the question, I suggested "Is the person currently religious?" I chose this wording because I think it might speak directly to those people who were raised in a particular religion but do not really believe in that religion. When describing themselves, these people often say something to the effect of (e.g.) "I'm Catholic, but I'm not really religious".

Thoughts?

[DanDare]

Originally Posted by Glob

Thoughts?

Easy to read, easy to answer and "get it right".