False claims are circulating online that “Christian” has been removed as a religious affiliation category from Australia’s 2026 Census.
According to AAP FactCheck, the claim is false, with Christianity never having been a standalone tick-box option on the Census form.
The 2026 Census form lists 10 tick-box options for religious affiliation: no religion, Catholic, Anglican, Islam, Hinduism, Uniting Church, Buddhism, Presbyterian, Greek Orthodox and Baptist.
People who identify as Christian but whose denomination is not among the listed options can write “Christian” in the free-text field under “Other”.
The same 10 options appeared on the 2021 Census form, meaning there has been no change to the way Christianity is recorded in the upcoming Census.
The claim has circulated on social media alongside an image of the religion question, with “Christian” written in the “Other” field. One post asks: “Why have they removed the category CHRISTIAN from the census?” and encourages people to enter Christian in the free-text section.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said the tick-box options are based on the most common mutually exclusive responses recorded in the previous Census.
“Tick-box options in the 2026 census are based on the most common mutually exclusive responses from 2021,” an ABS spokesperson said.
“Including Christianity as a tick box would result in a loss of information on the specific Christian denominations, such as Catholic and Anglican.”
While Christianity...
False claims are circulating online that “Christian” has been removed as a religious affiliation category from Australia’s 2026 Census. According to AAP FactCheck, the claim is false, with Christi...