Writeback, Belfast Telegraph Published 6 January 2003

The Census Office has admitted that it "adjusted" the census returns of some 11% of the population of N Ireland. This is outrageous. It should be illegal for civil servants to take it upon themselves to decide how citizens ought to have filled in their census forms and do it for them.

Why did the Census Office do it? Because they felt that an actual return of 40% Catholic and 46% Protestant was too low. So they massaged the figures to yield 44% Catholic and 53% Protestant, attributing religious affiliations on the basis of postal codes, etc. What business do the Census Office have, filling in the parts of the form that the citizens left blank? The job of the Census Office is to report the results accurately, not to meddle with them in order to "improve" them.

The Belfast Humanist Group objected to the wording of the question on religious belief and warned that it would lead to problems of interpretation. Their objections and concerns have been vindicated.

Now the media, including the BBC and even the Belfast Telegraph itself, are bandying the massaged figures about instead of the actual figures. Attention is focused on the usual topic - the difference in size between the two sectarian blocs. Politicians are arguing about the significance of the results and the future of the border, etc., regardless of the fact that the figures are massaged, not actual. Anyway, political change depends on votes and elections, not census results, and particularly not massaged census results.

Using the actual results, the most striking development during the past ten years is the increase in the section of the population which does NOT identify itself as Catholic or Protestant. That group has increased from 12% to 14% and the increase reflects the advance of rationalist, sceptical and scientific attitudes in N Ireland. This augurs well for the future, showing that we can escape from the ruts of sectarianism and the obsolete beliefs on which they are based. Hopefully some commentators will emphasise this aspect of the actual figures, instead of the pointless disputes over massaged figures.

Les Reid

Secretary

Belfast Humanist Group