A law from 1872 forbids the collection by the state of census data based on questions about religious beliefs. The French Third Republic considered that kind of information to be private and that any citizen of the Republic should be considered as equal of his mates, regardless his provocative and potentially divisive[clarification needed]. In accordance with the concept of laïcité, this principle was reaffirmed by the current French Fifth Republic in a law from 1978, stating that "it is forbidden to collect or process data of a personal nature related to racial or ethnic origins as well as political, philosophic, or religious opinions."
