The Macedonian Orthodox Church announced that it does not trust the outcome of the census, which is marred by numerous irregularities. One of the issues, on top of the massive boycott by ethnic Macedonians in the diaspora and in the country, is the decision to use two categories for Orthodox Christians – who were counted separately as “Orthodox” and as “Christians”.

The religious affiliation category obviously did not distinguish from the religion and the branch of the religion. This makes presented results very confusing and incorrect. They do not reflect the realistic religious situation in the country. A major issue is why was the religious branch given only in one of the religions?, the Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church said in a statement.

While Orthodox Christians were divided in this way, the Muslim community, for instance, was not counted as separate “Muslims” and “Sunnis”. According to the census, of the total population 46 percent are Orthodox and separately, 13.2 percent declared that they are Christians. Meanwhile, the Muslim community was put at 32 percent.

The Church also pointed to the fact that state institutions, led by ethnic Albanians, did not put in an effort to organize a full census among the ethnic Macedonian diaspora. “Given all this, the Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church considers the results of the census as invalid, especially with regard to the religious affiliation, where a serious statistical error covering 13.4 percent of the population is present”.