Origin 2001 to 2005
A modern religious and philosophical movement drawing its ethical vocabulary, the Force, the Jedi Code and related ideas, from George Lucas's Star Wars film franchise, begun in 1977. It first became visible as an organized religious claim in 2001, when a grassroots email campaign urged respondents to the United Kingdom, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian national censuses to write "Jedi" as their religion, a campaign over 390,000 UK respondents took part in. Where the census campaign was largely a loose, leaderless protest against how the census categorized religion, later groups such as the Temple of the Jedi Order, founded in Texas in 2005 by John Henry Phelan, built out a more structured practice around meditation, physical training and a real-world ethical code adapted from the films. Scholars who study it treat it as a leading case of a "hyper-real" religion, one drawing its source material openly from acknowledged fiction rather than from a claimed revelation.
Facts
Trajectory
Membership Over TimeSourced to the subject's own accountBy the 2021 census the number recording Jedi as their religion had fallen further, to fewer than 1,600, a decline the Office for National Statistics did not itself publish as a headline bulletin figure. 3 Membership Over TimeThe 2001 census of England and Wales recorded about 390,000 people writing in Jedi as their religion, following an internet campaign encouraging the response, making it statistically the fourth largest recorded religion in that census. 4 Membership Over TimeThe 2011 census found the number recording Jedi as their religion had fallen to nearly 177,000, less than half the 2001 figure. 4 Membership Figure As Of Membership Figure As Of Membership Figure As OfSourced to the subject's own account Basis of the Membership FigureSourced to the subject's own account Belief
TheologyNon-theistic: no creator god is central 1 Organized around the impersonal Force of the Star Wars films and an ethical code rather than around any claimed deity. Finances
Institutional Wealth or FinancesJediism itself has no central treasury. Its largest incorporated body, the Temple of the Jedi Order (a US 501(c)(3) since 2015), files the IRS's minimal Form 990-N, reserved for organizations under $50,000 in annual revenue. 2 Distinguishes the informal, decentralized belief system from its one incorporated US body; the Charity Commission for England and Wales separately declined the Temple's charity application in 2016. Basis of the Wealth Figure Wealth Figure As Of Year Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginUnited Kingdom (2001 census write-in campaign); Temple of the Jedi Order founded in Texas, United States, 2005 1 FounderNo single founder; the modern movement began with the 2001 international Jedi Census campaign, and the Temple of the Jedi Order was later organized by Daniel Jones. 1 Status
Status TodayIn active religious use 1 Legal StatusThe United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics ruled Jedi was not a valid religious classification for census purposes despite the write-in campaign, and it has not received formal religious recognition in any of the jurisdictions the 2001 campaign targeted. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
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