Australia’s census to ask about sexual orientation and gender for the first time

Australia’s national census on 11 August 2026 will ask people about their sexual orientation and gender for the first time. The new questions are for people aged 16 and over.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics , respondents will be able to describe themselves as straight, gay or lesbian, bisexual, or use another term. The gender options include man, woman, non-binary and a write-in response. Both questions include a “prefer not to answer” option. The sex question, included in every Australian census since 1911, will now refer specifically to sex recorded at birth. The bureau says the information is confidential and will not be released in a way that identifies a person or household.

The change was finalised after a political dispute in 2024. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government initially decided against adding new topics, saying it wanted to avoid a “divisive debate”, but later reversed course. As Australia’s ABC reported , the government agreed to include sexual orientation and gender after consultation and testing by the statistics bureau.

The bureau says the answers will provide a clearer estimate of the LGBT population and support planning for health and community services. LGBT organisations welcomed the data collection but noted that the census will not cover the entire group: it will contain no separate question on variations of sex characteristics, or intersex status. The government said testing had not shown that sufficiently high-quality data could be collected on that topic. Most census results are due in June 2027.