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Date: 2001-10-12 16:08:44

Comment:

Census Officials Blunt Jedi Campaign


Updated: Fri, Oct 12 8:05 AM EDT


LONDON (Reuters) - The Force will not be with you despite many Star Wars fans registering their religion as Jedi Knight in this year's British census.

Officials said on Thursday there was "absolutely no possibility" of Jedi appearing as a choice of religion on future census forms after officials created a code for Jedi to help them analyze responses to the 2001 population survey.

"Because a certain number of people were likely to have put Jedi Knight as a response to that question, it has been included as a code simply to help speed the forms through the machine-readers," a spokesman for the Office of National Statistics told Reuters.

"All that will happen is that it will be recorded as 'Other'," he said. "It certainly does not mean it is recognized as a religion."

An email campaign had circulated before the national survey in April aiming to persuade up to 10,000 people to enter themselves as followers of the science-fiction films' mystical faith -- with its mantra "May the Force be with you."

The spokesman said it was up to Parliament to decide on what questions appeared in the next census, due in 2011.

"There is absolutely no possibility of it appearing on the census form," he said.

"We will not be using taxpayers' money to publish how many people put 'Jedi' in," he added.