Jedi census phenomenon

Impact

During Australia's 2001 census, over 70,000 people listed their religion as Jedi. The Australian Bureau of Statistics responded to media curiosity with a press release, stating that Jedi-related answers would be recorded as "not defined" and highlighting the social consequences of giving false or misleading information. An ABS spokesperson noted that after the June 17 data release, further analysis was done to isolate the number of Jedi responses.

According to the ABS, a religion is not defined by a specific number of followers, but requires a belief system or philosophy along with some form of institutional or organizational structure. The campaign encouraging Australians to identify as Jedi was an early example of an internet-driven viral movement in the country; the promotional website received over 100,000 visits in five weeks and was first captured by the Wayback Machine on October 21, 2001.

In the 2006 census, 58,053 people claimed Jedi as their faith. That number rose to 65,000 in 2011, then dropped to about 48,000 in 2016. Sociologist of religion Adam Possamai examined this phenomenon in his book Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament, classifying Jediism as a "hyper-real religion" and arguing that the response revealed hostility toward new religions in Australia. Before the 2006 census, reports warned that writing "Jedi" could result in a fine for providing false or misleading information, even though the ABS had previously said it was "fairly relaxed" about the issue in 2001 and that no one had been prosecuted for such answers in at least 15 years.

Ahead of the 2016 census, atheists urged people not to use Jedi, fearing it would be counted as a genuine religious affiliation. The ABS did not release the number of Jedi responses in its official 2016 census reports.