Jedi (census)
The fictional
Jedi Religion has been coded up in several censuses, due to a grassroots movement which urged people to declare their religious affiliation as Jedi (even though lying on census forms is illegal in many jurisdictions).
People did this for various reasons:
- Frivolity
- To protest about the inclusion of religion on the census
- To mock religion
- To mock the census
- To indicate they do not take religion seriously
- To indicate they do not take the census seriously
- To indicate their devotion to Star Wars
- Just for fun
- So they can claim to be a Jedi Knight
- As an iconoclastic act
- Because "Jedi" is the closest match to their personal beliefs
- Because they felt (inspired by online urban legends) that this would cause official listing as a religion
In
Australia more than 70,000 people declared themselves members of the Jedi in the 2001 census.
In the UK 390,000 people (0.7%) stated their religion as Jedi on their 2001 Census forms as their religion, which would, if true, have made it the 4th largest religion in the country, just ahead of Sikhism.
Jedi is still not recognised as an "official" religion, however.
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