Census
Main article: Jedi census phenomenon
In 2001, around 500,000 people in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia recorded their religion as "Jedi" on their national census, following an e-mail campaign inviting people to do so. The e-mail messages claimed that Jedi would then become an official religion, when in fact, the UK for example does not "officially recognize" religions. The Jedi community had existed for some time before the consensus, but the results were interpreted exclusively as a joke by the governments of their respective countries.
In March 2009, it was revealed that eight officers of the Strathclyde Police force in Scotland, in addition to two of its civilian staff, have their religion officially recorded in the force's records as "Jedi".[14]
