Census mythconceptions

submitted to SMH

Steve Twining (letters 11 Aug) doubts that Catholic was listed at top of the religion list because of numbers of adherents; according to the 2001 census (easily fround at www.abs.gov.au), of the 18,769,000 total, 12,7564,000 nominated a christian denomination, and by far the most numerous group (with 5,001,624) replied Catholic. I'm not being an apologist for "the mad monk" or the catholic church, but I do think that the ABS is probably the most independent of government agencies. No need to apply Mark Twain's aphorism here.