"Census 2016" was the first Irish census that allowed respondents to report a marital status contracted with a person of the same sex. This followed a 2015 referendum to amend the Irish Constitution to permit same-sex marriages, which was passed into law by the Marriage Act 2015. Other than marital status, the 2016 census form copied all questions verbatim from the 2011 census form. The same is not planned for the 2022 census, which underwent a public consultation process in 2017 to formulate new questions. These changes included a revision to questions on religion, which Atheist Ireland argued skewed responses towards religiosity. The new questions were trialed in West Cork in 2018.