Comment upon the desirability of and problems associated with the Inclusion of Ethnic and Religious data in National Censuses.

Last year saw the inclusion of religious as well as ethnic based questions in the national census of England and Wales. The decision to include questions regarding religion was not taken lightly, and involved much heated debate over what is notoriously a very sensitive topic. Ultimately the allure of including such questions was too strong for the government to resist, and it was decided the benefits such information would bring outweighed the problems. The eventual payback is supposed to be felt across all sectors of society….(short extract)