Secularists in the UK
are launching a poster campaign ahead of the Census to encourage non-religious
people to register as being of “no religion”.

The move comes after
42 million people, almost 72 per cent of the population, chose to identify
themselves as Christians during the last Census in 2001.

But the British
Humanist Association (BHA) believes the number of non-religious people is
under-counted in the census and the number
of Christians is over-counted.

Recent surveys
suggest that, while the decline has been halted, weekly church attendance
remains at under two per cent of the UK population.

Campaigning under the
slogan: “If you’re not religious for God’s sake say so”, the BHA is also calling
on people to ‘Take the pledge’ to tick “No religion” on the
census.

This year’s census
will take place on 27 March. The BBC reports that a BHA poster campaign on buses
and at railway stations will begin next week.

The BHA’s head of
public affairs Naomi Phillips said the census results on religion are used to
“justify maintaining faith schools”.

She added: “It means
more budgets go to Christian groups and the needs of non-religious groups are
not taken into account.”

However,
faith-based schools in Britain are normally
over-subscribed.

Last year the
Integrated Household Survey, which analysed the responses of almost 450,000
adults, revealed that 71.4 per cent of the population identify themselves as
Christians, a figure similar to the 2001 census data.

Question 20 on
England and Wales’ census will ask: “What is your religion?”. Answering the
question is voluntary.

The first option on
the question is “no religion”, followed by options including Christian,
Buddhist, Muslim and “Any other religion, write in”.

The Office for
National Statistics, which collects the census data, told the BBC: “The religion
question measures the number of people who self-identify an affiliation with a
religion, irrespective of the extent of their religious belief or
practice”.

In 2009 the BHA
backed an advertising campaign which declared “There’s probably no
God”.