Religion News Service
OTTAWA, CANADA, May 14, 2003: May the force be with you. An astonishing 20,000 Canadians declared themselves followers of the religion of Jedi, the guardians of peace and justice in the “Star Wars” movies, Statistics Canada reported May 13 in its final installment of data culled from the 2001 census. Observers agree that declaring Jedi as a faith was a way of many Canadians to thumb their nose at what they felt was an intrusive or inappropriate question. “My religion is my issue, not the government’s,” said Denis Dion, a 44-year-old produce manager from just outside Vancouver who circulated an e-mail urging anyone who wanted to have fun with Canada’s census to identify his or her religion as Jedi. Canadian Press reports the Jedi gag is the latest in a global census trend that has left some statisticians red-faced as the number of Jedis has eclipsed some centuries-old religions. In the United Kingdom, for example, there are more Jedis than Jews. Nearly 400,000 people identified themselves as Jedi in the 2001 census. Only 260,000 said they were Jewish. Just last year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that more than 70,000 people named Jedi as their faith.