[News] [Australia] Census will count people who aren't just male or female

[Stephanie Stevens]

Same Same, Australia


Mon 25th Jul, 2016

Census will count people who aren't just male or female

By Matt Akersten

The Australian Census is the latest admin bureau to accept that some folks don’t fit the gender binary.

The 2016 Census will allow people to specify their own gender by writing it in instead of simply marking ‘male’ or ‘female’ on the printed form, reports SBS.

If completing the Census online however, you’d need to call the Census Inquiry Service, request a login for the special online form and then select “other” when completing the question.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says it consulted with LGBTI communities about gender variance, and noted that an increasing number of countries are also grappling with how best to represent those outside the gender binary.

“Sex and indeed gender are no longer seen as purely binary options for response,” says 2016 Census Data Director Sue Taylor.

“Community expectations are such that we really need to start thinking about how we are going to enable people to report as they would like to.”

It will be interesting to see how many Australians opt for a gender diverse answer. By the way, our Census does not ask about sexual orientation, so there’s no way of knowing for show how many Aussie residents are ‘out’ LGBTI – but when two males or two females living together state they’re in a relationship, they can be counted and we can understand where certain areas have higher concentrations of those couples.

Here’s the info from 2011. 32,377 couples said they were in a same-sex de facto partnership. Another 1,338 specified they were married, meaning there were altogether 33,714 same-sex couples living together in Australia. That means 0.7% of the total number of couples living together here are in gay or lesbian partnerships.

27% of the nation’s same-sex couples are living in the electorate of Sydney. The Melbourne electorate is also popular, home to 10%. Then there’s Wentworth NSW with 9.7%, Grayndler NSW with 9.5%, Melbourne Ports with 7.6% and Brisbane QLD with 5.8%.

The 2011 Census counted 6,300 children living in same-sex couple families, up from 3,400 in 2001.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released information about privacy, confidentiality and security relating to the information you’re being asked to provide. Read it here.


http://www.samesame.com.au/news/14007/Census-will-count-people-who-arent-just-male-or-female