2026 Census Topics

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The Australian Bureau of Statistics recommended five changes to topics for the 2026 Census, submitted to Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh in June 2024. The ABS proposes adding Gender and Sexual orientation as new topics, removing the Number of children ever born topic, and updating wording for two existing topics to be inclusive of sign language users. The recommendation followed 18 months of extensive public consultation, stakeholder engagement, and testing against established assessment criteria. Census content is determined jointly: Government decides topics specified in the Census and Statistics Regulation 2016 (tabled in Parliament), while the ABS determines specific questions under authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905. The 2026 Census, conducted every five years, provides population snapshots to inform critical policy decisions.