Census questions on people’s religious beliefs are flawed, according to a poll.

Questions such as “what is your religion?” and “are you religious?” are leading to confusing and contradictory results, a survey conducted by the British Humanist Association shows.

The poll questioned 1,896 adults in England and Wales on their religious beliefs.

Of the participants, 61 per cent indicated that they followed a religion yet when asked whether they were religious, 65 per cent of people said they were not.

Andrew Copson, chief executive officer of the BHA, said: “This poll is further evidence for a key message of The Census Campaign – that the data produced by the census, used by local and national government as if it indicates religious belief and belonging, is in fact highly misleading.

“We urge people who do not want to give continuing or even greater importance to unshared religions in our public life to tick ‘No Religion’ in the census.”

The poll also showed that only 48 per cent of people who indicated that they were Christian, said they believed that Jesus was a person. Asked how frequently they went to a place of worship, 63 per cent of people said they had not attended in the past year, while just under a quarter of participants said they had never visited a place of worship.

In a separate poll in Scotland, commissioned by the Humanist Society of Scotland, 42 per cent of participants said they did not belong to a religious denomination or body.

Yet when asked if they were religious, a higher proportion of people, 56 per cent, said they were not.