Census adds new non-religious categories

Mark Honeychurch (March 26, 2017)

The NZ Census asks a question of respondents about Religious Affiliation. Historically, the only response available for non-believers has been "No Religion". NZ Stats have now added several categories in time for the next Census in 2018.

The No Religion group has been growing steadily, and in the last census was 42%. However, there are questions about what it means to people when they tick that box.

The new categories give many more options:

Among the options available now for people with no religious belief are:

No Religion
Agnosticism
Atheism
Humanism
Rationalism
Jedi
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

I would be happy ticking several of those boxes, including No Religion, Atheism, Humanism and Rationalism. I'd also be tempted to tick the FSM box!