The 2001 Census was a landmark because it included a question on religion for the first time in modern British history. There had been fears that the public would find the question intrusive and not respond to it, but even though the only voluntary question of the fifty questions in the Census Form, there was a response rate of 93%.

The 2001 Census provided data for the first time on the demographics of the Muslim community and has been invaluable in both achieving recognition for Muslims and in better deployment of public resources to address the needs of hitherto statistically invisible and marginalised sections of the population.

The religion data, and also the ethnic-faith cross-tabulations have been extensively used by public bodies, faith communities, health studies, academic research e.g.