WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Judaism has been removed as a tick-box option of religions in the 2026 census form.
OUR VERDICT
False. Judaism has never been a pre-filled tick-box option on the form.
AAP FACTCHECK - False claims are spreading online that Judaism has been removed from the tick-box list of religions on the 2026 census.
However, Judaism has never been listed as a pre-filled option on the census.
The form lists the 10 most populous religions in the country, with adherents to "other" faiths, including Jews, having the option to write their religion into a free text field.
The claim comes just days before census night on August 11.
One Facebook post claims the upcoming census has "removed Judaism" as a tick-box category, forcing Jews to write their religion on the form.
"Will the Royal Commission on antisemitism note that the upcoming census has removed Judaism as an available category?" the post reads.
"Those who are Jews will have to select 'other' and manually enter their faith. Sounds like erasure."
Another post simply states: "Judaism removed from the upcoming census in Australia. It was included in the previous census in 2021."
However, this is false.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which runs the census every five years, said in a statement that online claims misrepresented the religion question and the way data on Judaism was captured.
"Judaism has not been removed as an option from the census form, as it has never been a pre-filled response option on the census religion question," the ABS said.
A question on religion has featured in every Australian census since 1911, and the 2026 form uses the same wording and tick-box options as 2021.
The 10 tick-box options - no religion, Catholic, Anglican, Islam, Hinduism, Uniting Church, Presbyterian, Buddhism, Greek Orthodox and Baptist - in the sample 2026 census form (Question 24, page 10) are unchanged from the 2021 census form (Question 23, p10).
Judaism does not appear as a tick-box option on either survey.
The ABS confirmed the options are set by the most common responses to the previous census.
"Tick-box options in the 2026 census are based on the most common mutually exclusive responses from 2021," the spokesperson told AAP FactCheck.
Just under 100,000 people, or 0.4 per cent of the population, nominated Judaism as their religion in the 2021 census, according to ABS data.
Around 91,022 said they were Jewish in the 2016 census, the same ABS figures show (Table 4).
The first census with a check-box religion list, alongside the free text option, was introduced in 1991, according to the ABS website.
Judaism has been listed as one of the example religions participants could write in the text box since 2001, the ABS spokesperson said, when such instructions were first introduced.
The 2026 instructional text lists Judaism among the religions people can write in under "other," alongside Macedonian Orthodox, Lutheran, Salvation Army, Sikhism and Taoism (p10).
The census is compulsory for all Australians and asks questions about people's age, country of birth, cultural background, living situation, work and education.
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