During the early part of 2001, this email was circulating around the web, primarily in England, New Zealand and Australia.

"As some of you may know there is a census coming around in the near future. For those who don't know, a census is where the government collates general information about its residents (number of people living in your house, religion, etc)

If there are enough people in the U.K., who put down a religion that isn't mentioned on the census form, it becomes a fully recognized and legal religion. It usually takes about 10,000 people to nominate the same religion. It is for this reason that it has been suggested that anyone who does not have a dominant religion to put "Jedi" as their religion. Send this on to all your friends and tell them to put down "Jedi" on their census form. And remember ..... if you are a member of the Jedi religion then you are by default a 'Jedi Knight'. So If this has been your dream since you were 4 years old.... Do it cos you love Star Wars, If not........... then just do it to annoy people.
May the Force be with you!" Author unknown

Well what happened next was pretty amazing actually.

More than 70,000 people in Australia declared themselves to be members of the Jedi. The Australian Bureau of Statistics issued a press release, which stated that any answers that were Jedi related were to be classified as "not defined." The ABS also made it quite clear that making misleading or false statements on the census was not only politically incorrect, but could also be subject to a fine. Per definition of the ABS, the amount of followers in a belief system does not make it a recognized religion. Such a religion would also require a philosophy and some sort of institutional or organized structure.

Australia is not the only country that has a Jedi population apparently, because in New Zealand over 53,000 people listed themselves as Jedi's. In fact, New Zealand holds the record for the most Jedi's per capita. 1.5% of the population listed their religion as Jedi on the census. Statistics New Zealand however recorded Jedi answers as "Answer understood, but will not be counted. The answers may not have been counted, but that does not change the fact that the answers would make Jedi the second largest religion in New Zealand. Interestingly enough Christians came in first with 58.9%, followed by No Religion 29.6%, Object to Answering 6.9%, Jedi 1.5%, Buddhism 1.2%, and Hinduism 1.2%

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