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Canadian Census: 20,000 Jedi Worshippers
Lev13than writes "Canada.com is reporting that some 20,000 Canadians listed "Jedi" as their religion in the last national census (2001). Apparently this is the offshoot of an Internet joke which originated in Australia a few years back. The results are interesting on a couple of levels. While it show that some people may have too much time on their hands, it also raises questions of privacy rights, Internet activism and data integrity. Although it's not statistically significant given Canada's population of 31.5 million, 20,000 lightsabre-wielding census-takers is nothing to sneeze at. StatsCan's full report (with no mention of Jedis) can be found here."
In the UK, some 390,000 individuals are followers of the force But as the original Canada.com article notes, the Jedi religion choce may have been a protest agains the government surveying religious preference.
I don't think it does perfectly describe any of the major religions. The people that "organised" these religions did not go on to create "a business underworld to avoid the government".
Yes, there are "followers" of major religions that use others' beliefs to their advantage, but that was not the intent of those that "developed" the religion, unlike the parent post's comment.