Generally, census data is extremely boring to sift through and traditionally doesn’t make for a fun news story. Would you believe the Czech Republic has trumped this trend, and has provided Star Wars fans a reason to care about a census? Well, they have.
According to a census taken in March, the first since 2001, the Czech Republic has 15,070 people registered as Jedi Knights for their official religion.
This wasn’t some viral stunt either, where people simply wrote it in as a joke. The Czech Statistical Office provided a legitimate option for people to select, as mentioned by one of their representatives, “We included this option (in the census form) despite a fierce debate over whether it’s serious or not. But it’s not up to statisticians to say what is or is not a religion”
The largest group of Jedi’s per capita reside in the capital city, Prague. 3,977 Jedi Knights live there, which accounts for 0.31% of the city’s population. The statistical office believes the amount of people who signed up proved it was a legitimate option, “Fifteen thousand adherents, which is the size of a small town, is not a negligible social phenomenon“.
It makes you wonder if these people have given up love and other emotions of the flesh, as we all know they lead to fear, which leads to anger, and of course hate. Personally, I couldn’t get past the training regiment.