The North’s Humanists are engaging in a public campaign to raise the number of people who declare themselves to be of no religion.

They are encouraging people who are “not in any meaningful sense religious” to tick the “None” box when asked about their beliefs in this year’s census.

As a result of the pandemic, instead of adverts in public spaces, the community is focusing on online advertising, press adverts and distributing posters for members to display in their windows for the campaign.

Boyd Sleator, the Northern Ireland Humanists co-ordinator, believes many people tick a religious box because of their family history or cultural background. “But you should understand that if you do that then you will be counted as fully religious in the eyes of policymakers,” he says.

He offers a political argument for declaring otherwise.

Census results are used by government and local authorities to make policy decisions on the allocation of funding to state services such as education, health, social care and pastoral care, Sleator says.

Continuing religious segregation in state schools is “justified” based on census results, he adds, as is the requirement for Christian worship in state schools “and aspects of our constitutional settlement like, for example, the ongoing presence of 26 bishops voting in parliament”.

“If you don’t want this to happen, then you should tick ‘None’,” he says.