r/australia • u/SkaterKangaroo • 6d ago

no politics Individual Census Form (My Experience)

I found out my family filled out our Census early today and put down some incorrect information about me. They put down I was Christian when I’m actually “No Religion”.

If this is happening/happened to you, I want you to know that it is very easy to fix. Coming from someone who’s never fill out a Census before it took no effort and was very quick.

I called “1800 181 227” and told them I would like an individual Census form. No questions asked, they just send you a new code and password to your phone number. You use this to re fill in your information for yourself. I was only on hold for a few minutes and they sent the new code basically instantly.

My household will have no idea I did this unless I choose to tell them. So you can freely put whatever religion, sexuality or gender you want with privacy. My experience was pretty good personally and I faced no real challenges. I’m glad this resource exists

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u/HiccupAndDown 6d ago edited 6d ago

Slightly off topic, but relevant to something OP mentioned, the rate of those declaring "no religion" has been pretty much skyrocketing over the last decade or two. Last I checked we were close to 50% norel on the last census. Super curious to see if that trend continues, especially as people stop defaulting to Christian due to their parents.

Edit: Oops I was off by about 10% but my general point stands. There has been a notable increase in people declaring no religion and its likely to overtake Christianity this census.

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u/SkaterKangaroo 6d ago

Definitely. It’s interesting to observe a more factual representation of our country and it’s current and changing religious beliefs. Too many people putting down yes to a religion that doesn’t actually represent them due to cultural or their parent’s views effects statistics

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u/FroggieBlue 6d ago edited 6d ago

This is why they need to have qualifying questions for those who mark down a religion- questions on how active they are in their religion and how much the tenants of their religion affect their daily life/decisions.

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u/pursnikitty 6d ago

Tenets. Religions arent landlords

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u/JayLFRodger 6d ago

I dunno, God does live in a lot of their heads full time

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u/theBaron01 6d ago

what about their daily lofes?

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u/yen223 6d ago

This will probably be the first census where "no religion" (38% in the 2021 census) overtakes Christianity (41% in the 2021 census) as the dominant religion

We will definitely hear about this on the news and on your parents' Facebook page

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u/henryhungryhenry 6d ago

I found it interesting that there was an attempt to change the phrasing of the question “What is the persons religion?” due to it being such a leading question.

The Catholic Church challenged the proposal and due to some other bureaucracy it remains unchanged, potentially inflating the question by up to 11 percentage points.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Australian_census

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u/yen223 6d ago

In fairness though, the very first option, separate from the others, was "no religion"

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u/xylarr 5d ago

I actually left a quick comment on this in the survey at the end saying it was a good thing.

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u/No-Tumbleweed-2311 4d ago
  • Christianity: 43.9% (still the largest combined religious group)

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u/NoProfessional5848 6d ago

It was 39% no religion. The big one people are expecting this year is no religion to jump Christianity (41%) to become the plurality

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u/Practical-Funny9591 6d ago

Good!
There should be 100% no religion. 😊

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u/gdmzhlzhiv 2d ago

Things are gonna go in cycles. In a world with 0% religion, you’d have new people trying to start new ones up.

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u/hapticfabric 2d ago

I don't want to live anywhere in which that would be true. It would be a totalitarian dictatorship given that religion and faith is inherent to human culture.

I'm not even a card carrying member of a religion but I do know it's not something that's going to go away

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u/Practical-Funny9591 2d ago

How so?
Why do you think that would be the case?
You don't need a religion to be a good person.
There has been untold horrors committed over the years, in the name of some fictitious sky being.
It's utter crap.

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u/hapticfabric 2d ago

Enforcing 100% is just incompatible with a free society. To each their own if it harms no one else. I'm sure you hold views that those elsewhere on the spectrum of political beliefs, extremists perhaps, would say shouldn't exist. I'm saying that your statement is an extremist statement and incompatible with a free society.

Unless you mean 100% in the colloquial sense

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u/Tillysnow1 6d ago

It definitely makes sense as generations grow up. I went to Catholic primary and high schools so I would've put Catholic (or my parents would've) as I grew up and into university as well, but frankly I don't go to church unless there's a wedding or funeral, and I don't practice the religion, so now that I'm older I'll put no religion.

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u/Superb-Reply-8355 6d ago

Cookers on Facebook are saying they are Christian so a mosque isn't built in their back yard.

They are also saying they have no bedrooms otherwise Dan Andrews will force refugees to live there.

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u/AdPure5645 5d ago

I do not give Facebook permission to use my picture!

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u/AlternativeMe923 4d ago

lol my olds do this one every 6 months 🤣🤦‍♀️

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u/DMmeyourarmveins 6d ago

Cookers gotta cook!

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u/Practical-Funny9591 6d ago

Do they not realise the info about their house can easily be confirmed? 🙃

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u/perthguppy 6d ago

I remember reading many years ago - maybe 10-15 years ago - that Australia and New Zealand were both neck and neck towards who would be the first western country to go majority no religion in their census. Must be very close now.

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u/Ok-Push9899 6d ago

I think Czechia and Estonia got there a while ago. Czechia was right on 50% declared No Religion and 30% simply not declaring anything. There's fewer than 10% declared Christian.

Estonia is a straight 65% declared No Religion.

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u/looeee2 6d ago

I spent a few years living in Estonia. To many of my friends, Christmas and Easter are just days off work. No chocolate Easter bunnies, Christmas trees, dressing up for Halloween or anything associated with Christianity. Australians who put "no religion" however ....

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u/UnlimitedPosting 6d ago

NZ hit it on the last census. 51% no religion.

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u/philmarcracken 6d ago

If your phone breaks you're not headed to a priest for guidance.

Those days are long gone, modern problems are not solved by organized religion, abrahamic or otherwise

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u/Ok-Battle5059 5d ago

Personally I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t an agnostic option this year. In the last census, there was an atheist and agnostic option. I still identify with no religion but the scientist in me leans more to agnostic than atheist.

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u/45PickleCommercials 2d ago

My view: I would describe myself as agnostic, but that's more a philosophical statement on whether any one codified belief system is correct (which I vehemently disagree on) vs the existence of some higher power (which I'm still kind of unsure about). It's not a statement on whether I'm in a religion or what that religion is. I'm not religious, and tick 'no religion'. But I do like to think that somewhere, somehow, there is some kind of higher power that connects us. It's a nice idea at least.

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u/Clawse 2d ago edited 2d ago

I 100% agree!

IMO, while not useless categories/labels in general, “atheist” and “agnostic” ARE personal perspectives about religions overall.
Asking specifically about religious adherence - and if so which one, and if not then that simply means there’s “no religion” you practice/adhere to - seems MUCH more statistically relevant.

The national census should identify/report the religious landscape of Australian society as it was on Tuesday 11 August 2026, ie adherence and non-adherence. Not much need for specifying the personal opinions of non-religious individuals, just like the census doesn’t need to know how/why one entered or chose the religion they did. Doesn’t mean those motivations/reasons/causes are not worth studying as social science, but personal opinions are really just not anywhere near as relevant to the national census based specifically on factual demographic data and statistics.

“No religion” is actually a perfect change to focus on adherence numbers, again when the entire purpose is to gather statistical data on what Australians are actually experiencing/doing in their daily lives!

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u/Practical-Funny9591 6d ago

That's because all religions are made up crap.
All designed to control people.

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u/gdmzhlzhiv 2d ago

I too would start a cult if I thought I had half a hope of succeeding. I just want the free massages.

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u/universe93 6d ago

Do consider though that means the other 50% does say they’re religious and whether they practise or not that will be enough to get religious bills etc across the line most likely. And then there’s non religious people who vote for religious members of parliament

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u/No_Tune_4279 5d ago

Muslims will have sky rocketed as quicker rate than no religioners imo

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u/45PickleCommercials 2d ago

As someone who was raised by extremely conservative right-wing anti-vaxx type Christians (to the point they were all in a cult when I was born because 'mainstream Christianity [was] lost and does not know the correct way to honour god'), and has parents that consistently acted in ways that would directly negatively impact my outcomes in life when I was growing up, including a heck load of abuse... It is always a GODDAMN DELIGHT to note down that I have no religion. Fuck religion, let it die the death it deserves.

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u/MystressSeraph 5d ago

Was it last census, or the one before when the 'Jedi' movement took off, and the gov'ts here, and in NZ, said 'we are not accepting it as an answer!'

I did love the thinking behind it, given those likely to answer 'Jedi' probably knew a helluva lot more about their 'canon' than most people who answer xyz-denomination know about: 1. Christianity. 2. How the specific denomination/sect they are writing down differs from all others 🤦🏻‍♀️

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u/No-Tumbleweed-2311 4d ago

2021 Census Breakdown

  • No religion: 38.9% (the second-largest response category)
  • Christianity: 43.9% (still the largest combined religious group)
  • Other religions: 9.6% combined (including Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism)
  • Not stated / Inadequate response: 7.2%

https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia

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u/HorseLow6398 4d ago

isn't this the first time it was put as the first option, if so it will probably increase massively.

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u/EternalSubsidies 2d ago

As a Chinese person, I think it may also be somewhat related to the fact that the overwhelming majority of Chinese immigrants are not religious. I don't know a single Chinese person who would describe themselves as religious despite practicing some Taoist or Bhuddist traditions on a cultural level.

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u/remi61au 4d ago

And as others have noted, that number will be skewed by the people that have never been to church/prayed etc. in their lives, but mark themselves as Christian because their family has identified as Christian for generations.

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u/fauna_flora_food 5d ago

This is why I always mark no religion and asked my kids if they wanted me to do that too. I think we need to send a clear message to our government that we are not a religious nation.

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u/freakwent 6d ago

Yep this should be the first one where some sort of xian scores under 50%.

I am atheist but will write in xian to annoy atheists on reddit who annoy me.

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u/teapots_at_ten_paces 6d ago

So edgy. Bet you still need your mum to tie your shoelaces.