Jedi census phenomenon
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The Jedi census phenomenon was a grassroots movement in 2001 for citizens in a few English-speaking countries to record their religion as "Jedi" or "Jedi Knight" (after the fictitious religious order of Force-attuned knights in the Star Wars films) on the national census. Their motivations were unknown, but Australian Star Wars Appreciation Society president Chris Brennan reported to The New Zealand Herald that while a minority were "true hard-core people that would believe the Jedi religion carte blanche", the majority of self-reported Jedi "either did so for a laugh or to poke borax[1] at the Government." [2]. Other news reports also interpreted the exercise as a massive practical joke.
The campaign was loosely organized by circulating emails claiming that if enough people entered "Jedi", it would be recognized as an official religion by the government. The emails also implored people to report their religion as "Jedi" "because you love Star Wars" or "just to annoy people". Other reasons that have been suggested for this behaviour have included frivolity, a protest or mockery of the census or religion, or a simple desire to gain notoriety as someone who declared themselves as a Jedi.
In Australia more than 70,000 people declared themselves members of the Jedi in the 2001 census. The Australian Bureau of Statistics issued an official press release [3] following a large number of media enquiries on the subject, prior to the 2001 census. The ABS stated that the code for 'not defined' would be substituted for any respondents entering 'Jedi' in the religion question, and stressed the social impact of making misleading or false statements on the census.
Over 53,000 people listed themselves as Jedi in New Zealand and 20,000 listed themselves as Jedi in Canada. New Zealand has the highest per capita population of purported Jedi in the world, with 1.3% marking "Jedi" as their religion on the census.
In England and Wales 390,000 people (0.7%) stated their religion as Jedi on their 2001 Census forms, surpassing Sikhism, Judaism, and Buddhism, and making it the fourth largest reported religion in the country. The highest such responses were typically in cities with high student populations. The percentages of religious affiliations (excluding those who responded 'no religion', and non-respondents) were:
- Christian: 94.0%
- Muslim: 3.1%
- Hindu: 1.1%
- Jedi: 0.7%
Jedi is still not recognised as an "official" religion in any nation where the movement took place; however, it was assigned its own code in the United Kingdom for census processing. Officials from the British Office for National Statistics have pointed out that just because "Jedi Knight" has been given its own code, that does not confer on it the status of official recognition; it merely means that it has been registered as a common answer to the "religion" statistic.
Several people at the Office for National Statistics, including John Pullinger (director of reporting and analysis), have noted that many people who would otherwise not have completed a Census form did so solely to record themselves as Jedi, so this joke actually improved the quality of the Census.
One possible reference to this phenomenon emerged in June of 2005 when Jamie Reed, Member of Parliament for Copeland in the United Kingdom, declared himself to be a Jedi during his maiden speech. The statement, made in the context of an ongoing debate regarding an "Incitement to Religious Hatred" bill, was confirmed by Reed's office to be a joke instead of a serious statement of faith.
Notes and references
- ^ The phrase "to poke borax at", also "to poke borack at", is an Australian idiom of declining usage meaning "to ridicule". The phrase is of no apparent relation to borax, the chemical compound. [4]
