We love it when fun facts about the Isle of Wight pop up. What’s tickled our fancy recently comes from the latest Census data.
A large number of Isle of Wight residents declared their faith as Jedi Knights, but once we started digging into the numbers, it was the large spread of religions declared that sparked our interest further.
One of highest proportions of Jedi Knights
Data from the 2011 Census found that England’s capital, London, had the largest total number of Jedi, but the Isle of Wight and Ceredigion (Wales) still had a high proportion of Jedi Knights.
On the Isle of Wight, 766 people claimed their religion was Jedi Knight.
According to Brilliant Maps, who drew our attention to this, nearly 400,000 people in the UK (about 0.7% of the population) claimed to be Jedi in 2001. By the time the 2011 Census came round, that number had reduced to 176,632. Had they been killed off by the Sith or converted to another religion?
What the heck is ‘Animism’?
It’s often declared there is a lack of diversity on the Isle of Wight and although some of the numbers are low, data from the 2011 Census reveals there is in fact a wide range of religions being practiced here.
The breakdown of the other religions was quite an eye-opener for us here at OnTheWight.
We discovered religions we’d never even heard of, such as Animism (the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe).
And there’s more
There are plenty that we had heard of, but never met anyone practicing them (well, we don’t think so).
- 13 Heathens
- 16 Rastafarians
- 5 Satanists
- 1 Reconstructionist
- 6 Shamanists
- 2 Witchcraft
- 40 Wiccans
- 2 Zoroastrians
According to the data there are also four Free Thinkers, 17 who state their religion is Heavy Metal. The number of self-declared Realists – zero.
Popular religions – no surprise
The stats for popular religions will be of no surprise:
- 83,671 Christians
- 459 Buddhists
- 312 Hindus
- 124 Jews
- 524 Islamic Muslims
- 45 Sikhs
40,950 describe themselves as having no religion.
The numbers
Here’s the list in full of self-declared religions on the Isle of Wight. Marvel at the variety – it’s very refreshing to see.
| Religion | Number |
|---|---|
| Realist | 0 |
| Animism | 1 |
| Mysticism | 1 |
| Native American Church | 1 |
| Reconstructionist | 1 |
| Traditional African Religion | 1 |
| New Age | 2 |
| Scientology | 2 |
| Witchcraft | 2 |
| Zoroastrian | 2 |
| Church of All Religion | 3 |
| Taoist | 3 |
| Free Thinker | 4 |
| Shintoism | 4 |
| Theism | 4 |
| Universalist | 4 |
| Satanism | 5 |
| Deist | 6 |
| Shamanism | 6 |
| Own Belief System | 7 |
| Believe in God | 8 |
| Pantheism | 8 |
| Baha’i | 11 |
| Heathen | 13 |
| Rastafarian | 16 |
| Heavy Metal | 17 |
| Druid | 25 |
| Other religions | 40 |
| Wicca | 40 |
| Sikh | 45 |
| Humanist | 49 |
| Spiritual | 55 |
| Atheist | 68 |
| Mixed Religion | 78 |
| Agnostic | 86 |
| Jewish | 124 |
| Spiritualist | 216 |
| Hindu | 312 |
| Pagan | 340 |
| Buddhist | 459 |
| Muslim (Islam) | 524 |
| Jedi Knight | 766 |
| Religion not stated | 11,275 |
| Christian | 83,671 |
