They have conceded that one in six people did not complete the census, which was run online for the first time.

The data, therefore, may be understated.

The raw data is somewhat confusing for those who are not versed in the art of interpreting statistics

At first sight, it appears that the number of "Roman" Catholics has decreased from 492,105 in 2013 to 295,743, a decrease of 196,262!

That represents an almost 40% decrease in the number of Catholics in New Zealand over five years.

However, further examination reveals two more "Catholic " categories, Catholic (Not Further Defined) 173,016, and Catholic Other 2271.

If these figures are added to the Roman Catholic ones, the total comes to 471,030. A decrease of 21,075 or just over 4%.

Until the experts provide further interpretation it is unclear just how many Catholics, Roman or otherwise, there are in New Zealand.

Other statistics raised questions.

The Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki has labelled the census results as "ludicrous" and "laughable".

According to the census data, his church has 1772 adherents, far below what Tamaki says is more than 6000 active members.

It also puts it below both The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (4248 believers) and Jedi (20,409 believers).

"Most of us, including myself, will have put down Christian or Pentecostal. Even I wasn't counted in the 2018 Census as a Destiny Church member!" Tamaki said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We are a predominantly Maori church and the census utterly and totally failed Maori, which The Spinoff and its ilk conveniently forget.

They even had City Impact Church, a majority Pakeha church, down as only having 441 members which is ludicrous. It's laughable."

The Church of Scientology opened a $16 million base in Auckland in 2017.

It appears to have just three new followers. The census recorded 321 Scientologists in 2018, up from 318 in 2013.

Sources

• Supplied
• newshub.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: wn.catholic.org.nz

The data from last year's census, released this week, shows that 48.59 per cent of New Zealanders indicated 'no religion' in 2018, up from 41.92 per cent in the 2013 census.

The number of New Zealanders without any religion has overtaken the number of Christians for the first time.

The findings have prompted lobby group Humanist NZ to call an end to "discrimination" that they claim non-religious New Zealanders face.

"Christianity has a privileged position in public policy today that is out of step with modern New Zealand," said Jolene Phipps, president of Humanist NZ.

"From parliamentary prayers to classrooms 'closing' during the school day so that Christian groups can run religious instruction, the concessions awarded to religious organisations clash with human rights and our concept of a free and fair society."

The latest census records that there are 663 humanists in New Zealand.

Out of the different Christian churches, Anglicans topped the list at 314,913, while 295,734 people identified as Roman Catholic, 221,199 as Presbyterian and 52,743 as Methodist.

The Census figures show an increasing number of people who follow other religions than Christianity.

The number of Muslims or those practising Islam has risen from 46,149 in 2013 to 61,455 in 2018.

Hinduism has increased to 40,908 in 2018, while Sikhs more than double to 40,908.

Satanism had 1149 adherents, more than Scientologists (321) and Druids (189), but below Wiccans (1482) and Jedi (20,409).

Source

• sightmagazine.com.au
• newshub.co.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• Image: 218 New Zealand census

To put that in context against other indigenous Christian movements, Ratana has more than 40,000, Ringatu has more than 10,000, and other individual Pentecostal Churches are far larger.

Twenty thousand people put Jedi as their religion, and more than 4,000 put Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The are almost as many Zoroastrian believers as followers of Brian Tamaki.

Source

• thespinoff

Maori are likely to have been disproportionately affected by the new process but they have had no say in its design or implementation says Te Mana Raraunga, (TMR) the Maori Data Sovereignty Network.

They think the limitations of the Census 2018 have created an unacceptable brake on efforts to advance Maori social, cultural and economic wellbeing.

TMR says official statistics are fundamental for informing Maori and Crown actions to improve Maori wellbeing and realise Maori rights.

The delay in the release of data until September 2019 is also a major concern for TMR because timeliness is a key factor in the usefulness of such data to inform decisions.

After it became apparent that the census enumeration was incomplete, the dataset was augmented by drawing extensively on other government data.

Stats NZ notes that 11 percent of the total number of records in the dataset it created for Census 2018 have come from other government data.

TMR is urging Stats NZ to reveal what percentage of Maori ethnicity and Maori descent records in the census dataset have been sourced from outside the census.

Maori descent data are used to calculate the number of electorates and revise electoral boundaries.

Government Statistician Liz MacPherson said on Monday that the data was good enough to provide information for setting boundaries of both general and Maori electorates.

"By combining the census forms with the admin data, we've been able to come up with a Maori descent population which is more comprehensive than the 2013 census. And it's Maori descent that's used for electoral boundaries."

However, TMR says the Census 2013 had the lowest Maori coverage of any recent Census.

Data relating to iwi affiliation will not be available for the 2018 Census.

A lack of iwi affiliation data could have an impact on Treaty settlements.

Source

• static1.squarespace.com
• radionz.co.nz
• newsroom.co.nz
• Image: tvnz.co.nz

Sara Passmore, President of the Humanist Society of New Zealand, said that "most people are happy living ethical and fulfilling lives without participating in a religion."

"Yet, we know that when it comes to the census, many people identify as religious because that is how they were raised."

Passmore said the Humanists wanted to connect to such people.

"As people in New Zealand are proud to identify as not religious, we can move faster towards a fully secular society where the rights and beliefs of everyone are respected, protected and celebrated."

In a recent column, Brian Rudman has described the census as a dreary, if worthy, exercise in civic duty.

"To me, it's been a lost opportunity to bring a bit of fun into this," he said.

"Only the Humanist Society, no doubt sniffing another victory against their Christian foes, got into the spirit of the occasion."

"I saw no signs of the Christians, or for that matter, the Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists or Sikhs minority religions which at the last census made up 6 percent of the population, answering the challenge."

In the 1996 Census, 25.5 percent ticked "no religion". Ten years later that had jumped to 34.7 percent.

In the 2013 Census, it was up to 41.5 percent.

A Royal Society of New Zealand analysis of the census results states that the full defection rate from the main Christian denominations is masked by the addition of immigrant Christians (e.g. Presbyterians and Methodists from Korea, and Catholics from the Philippines and the Pacific Islands).

"The mainstream Protestant churches have further declined (Anglicans, Presbyterians and Methodists); the only notable Christian growth is among some Pentecostal and independent evangelical churches, albeit from a low base."

Source

• humanist.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• royalsociety.org.nz
• Image: humanist.nz

Growing Filipino and Pacific Island communities have swelled congregations in the Mid-Canterbury town, which has the biggest proportion of Christian people in the district.

About 71 per cent of the 1500 people that live in three central Ashburton areas identified themselves as Christian in the 2013 census.

At the other end of the scale, about 58 per cent of the 2600 people in Lyttelton who answered the question said they had no religion - one of the highest levels in Canterbury.

Ashburton, which has a population of about 30,000 people, has seven churches clustered around the main highway.

Rev Geoff Gray, of the St Augustine of Canterbury parish, said his congregation had grown by about 200 in the last few years. Continue reading

The 2013 New Zealand census shows that of the total population of 4.2 M, population, 3.9 M stated their religious affiliation. Of those, 1.635 M, (1 in 4), say they had no religious affiliation, up from 1.297 M who did so in the 2006 census. This represents a 26% increase and it means New Zealand one of the most secular countries in the world.

• People affiliating with Christianity fell 8 per cent to 1.9 million.
• All the major Christian churches have declining membership,
• The smaller Pentecostal church and other smaller evangelical institutions have show an increased membership of their respective churches.
• The Anglican Church has lost almost 100,000 members with the total population down to 459,000. The sharp decline means Catholicism, even though recording a small decline in membership - (17,000 fewer than in 2006) - with a total population of 492,000 has become the most populous religion in New Zealand.
• The membership of other religions, those associated with migrants to New Zealand, has significantly increased.
• A Christian majority in New Zealand is uncertain. The number who identified as "no religion" or who didn't answer the religious affiliation question was more than the total number who identified as Christian.

Source

• International Business Times
• NZ Catholic
• Supplied
• Image: New Zealand in HDR

The decile ranking system is intended to compensate adequately schools whose parents cannot afford to make big donations.

However, schools in rich areas are still about $1,000 a year better off for every student despite this Government funding that favours poorer schools, says Dr Cathy Wylie of the NZ Council for Educational Research who has carried out a survey of 177 schools.

A survey of five decile 10 and five decile 1 primary schools by the NZ Educational Institute, quoted by Dr Wylie in a book on inequality to be published next week, found the schools' total budgets averaged $8,653 a student in decile 10 areas but only $7,518 a student in the decile 1 schools.

Another Fund available to schools allows students to sit assessments under special conditions. That could include a room to themselves to avoid distraction, being assisted by a reader-writer, use of braille, rest breaks, or computers.

In 2012, a total of 3418 of the 143,000 pupils who sat NCEA-level exams got special assistance. Private Auckland school King's College, which regularly tops national academic tables, had 180 pupils sitting NCEA exams last year. Of those 44 qualified for special exam conditions.

By comparison, neighbouring school Otahuhu College, which is decile 1 and had four times as many NCEA candidates in 2012, had no SAC applications.

School decile ratings have not been reviewed since the 2006 because the census was delayed two years by the Christchurch earthquake.

The Ministry of Education told the Herald on Sunday that school decile ratings will be reviewed next year and related changes to funding will be applied in 2015.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• New Zealand Herald
• Stuff
• Image: historic.org.nz

According to the last census, many Christchurch Christians were older, with 20.6 per cent being over 65.

Those who were non-religious in Christchurch seemed to be younger - 23.9 per cent were under 15 and only 4.2 per cent over 65.

However, she quotes Father John Adams of the St Joseph's Catholic Parish as saying the number of Catholics in the city had not dropped.

"The Roman Catholic population in New Zealand has stayed constant for the last 100 years. We are not diminishing."

Adams also said it was not just about numbers. He believed the number of Christians in the city was not as important as the strength of their belief.

"I think a small but ardent group of Christians is more effective than a larger group of less passionate Christians."

Adams also believed the earthquakes might have driven more people back to church: "In times of uncertainty, people are drawn to faith."

Source

• The Press
• Image: 3bp.blogspot.com

The Church Census, which will cover all churches of all denominations or none, will be taken in March-April.

New Zealand's 72 Census Districts will be covered

Massey University's associate professor of history, Peter Lineham, says there is no formal register of churches.

‘‘It's quite amazing, we just don't know.''

Sample surveys done by Massey University and Bible Society New Zealand have shown 14 per cent of New Zealanders go to church weekly and 20 per cent go at least once a month.

Source

• FarifaxDigital
• Baptist

It seems somewhat careless for the Church to lose so many believers and rather a setback- and does it mean that in politics we need pay less attention to faith?

The census asked the voluntary question, "What is your religion?". In 2001, 71.7% replied they were Christian. In 2011, that figure had fallen to 59.3%. Meanwhile, those declaring themselves of no religion (not necessarily the same thing as being atheist) rose from 14.1% to 25.1%.

The ONS notes that the 2011 Census data are similar to other surveys of religious belief: it quotes the 2011 Annual Population Survey which showed 63.1% of the population is Christian, 4.8% Muslim, and 27.9% have no religion.

Much depends on how you view the 2001 figures and so the difference in 2011. It was not the case that in 2001, 71.7% of people were regular churchgoers and neither in 2011 was 59.3% of the population. The data measure religious affiliation, not activism. What we might call active Christians, those who attend church, have always formed a smaller, but still significant, proportion of the population.

For example, in 2007, Tear Fund, a Christian international development charity, conducted a survey (of 7,000 people) which found 15% of adults attended church at least once a month, with 10% attending weekly (this would equate to almost 5 million), and 26% attended at least once a year, equivalent to 12.6 million (the survey found 53% of adults called themselves Christians).

Demos, in its Faithful Citizens report published this year, found 13% of people said they belonged to a church or religious organisation (which includes other faiths). Continue reading

Sources

• Stephen Beer in Left Foot Forward
• Image: The Guardian

Results of the April 2011 census, published Friday, report 84% of Ireland's population (3.86 million), describe themselves Catholic.

The 179,889 increase in Catholics however represents a 2.8% drop from the 2006 figure. The percentage drop is put down to the the fact that the Republic's population has increased.

Those who are nearest to the Catholic numbers are the 269,800 with "no religion". Another 72,914 did not state their religion.

Statistics for other religious groups are:

• Church of Ireland 129,039 (6.4% increase)
• Presbyterian 24,600 (4.5% increase)
• Jehovah's Witness 6,149 (19.4% increase)
• Islam 49,204 (51.2% increase)
• Hindu 10,688 (75.7% increase)
• Buddhist 8,703 (33.6% increase)
• Orthodox Christians 20,798 (117.4% increase)
• Pentecostal Christians 14,043 (73% increase)

Going against the increased religious trend is Methodist Church in Ireland, traditionally one of the four main Churches, that experienced a 43.7% decrease to 6,842 people who described themselves Methodist.

Sources

• Irish Times
• Image: Irish Literature and Literaria

Billboards urging Australians with no religious affiliation to tick the "no religion" option have begun to appear around parts of NSW and the foundation has launched a website urging Australians to tick the "no religion" box in the 2011 census.

The Foundation says the outcome of the Census will influence decisions by Australian governments including the transfer of taxpayer money to religious organisations, or the granting of special concessions and exemptions.

The Australian Atheist Foundation believes that across the Tasman 50% of New Zealanders will tick the no religion box in this year's Census, the first for any western democracy, however it is something they want to claim first.

David Nicholls, president of the Atheist Foundation, said he expected a higher uptake of the no religion option this year. "People are leaving traditional religion in droves," he said. "I think that will become clear in the census this time around."

"Values such as "love thy neighbour", "do not commit murder", and "thou shall not steal" are shared by many religions, cultures, and societies throughout history. As such, many values labelled "Christian" are shared by people of all faiths, and those who have no faith at all," the census no religion website states.

"Believing Jesus rose from the dead or was born of a virgin does not give the faithful a monopoly on morality. One can be perfectly moral without a supernatural spy camera watching."

No religion has been an option on the census form since 1971. In the 2006 census, 18.7 per cent of respondents stated they had no religion, up 25.7 per cent on 1996.

Since 1966

• non-religious and Pentecostals have both increased by 25.7%
• Catholics increased by 6.8%
• Eastern Orthodox increased by 9.5%
• Baptists increased by 7.3 per cent
• Hinduism increased by 120.2%
• Buddhism increased by 109.6%
• Islam increased 69.4%
• Judaism increased by 11.3%.

Across the whole population, 63.9 per cent identified as Christian, 5.6 per cent were non-Christian, 18.7 per cent had no religion, 11.2 per cent did not state their beliefs and 0.7 per cent of answers were inadequately described.

Sources

• SMH
• Census No Religion
• Atheist Foundation of Australia
• Image: Census No Religion