The 2026 Census represents a significant milestone for Australia’s LBGTIQ+ people. For the first time, data on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex variations will be captured in the national census, writes Ali Khan.
Vice-President of the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, and partner at Dowson Turco Lawyers, Nicholas Stewart said this year’s Census is a turning point for LGBTIQ+ people.
“For decades, governments have built health, housing and community policies on incomplete data. The 2026 Census finally gives visibility to Australians who’ve long been invisible in national statistics.
“Data collection helps drive evidence-based services including victims services in the justice system, education and training of the public service, funding for mental health, suicide prevention, HIV prevention as well as when and how those services are provided.”
He said while information has been available through a mix of government, academic and corporate surveys, data collection for LGBTIQ+ people was a relatively new phenomenon in Australia.
For example in 2024, the ABS published the Estimates and characteristics of LGBTI+ populations in Australia, which was based on information provided in previous household surveys.
Nicholas said the turning point in Australia, was during the HIV epidemic in the 1980s.
“Data was critical to the government response to the epidemic, but data was also largely non-existent. I would argue that it was during this time that meaningful data collection began for the gay male group.”
Nicholas assured LGBTIQ+ people that information collected in the Census would be secure.
The ABS explained how the Census is designed to ensure people’s privacy and the information.
“The ABS is legally required to keep data secure and not release information in a way that is likely to identify an individual.
“Additionally, any member of a household, including visitors, can complete their Census separately for privacy reasons.
“If you want to fill in your Census separately from your household, you can get a Census number to complete it online or request a paper form by calling the Census Contact Centre,” an ABS spokesperson said.
Nicholas predicted the Census would reveal a snapshot of LGBTIQ+ people living in regional and remote areas, as well as the cities, and show many people who come from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.
However, he said there was much more work to do, to get a holistic understanding of the LGBTIQ+ population.
“The LGBTIQ+ community is not a monolith. Data on homosexual men and women is not the same as data on trans people, bisexual people or the Intersex community. Intersex people are not necessarily gay, bisexual or trans.
“But some people in the gay, bisexual and trans communities may have innate variations of sex characteristics and identify as Intersex.”
There were concerns that information collected in the 2016 and 2021 censuses about people with intersex variations/differences of sex development, was done so in ways that were harmful and that did not produce reliable, meaningful data.
“Intersex status is really about sex characteristics, rather than sex or gender, Nicholas said.”
The ABS explained each Census were developed after extensive public consultation, stakeholder engagement and testing. This included working with its the LGBTIQ+ Expert Advisory Committee which provided advice on the preparations for the collection, compilation and release of 2026 Census data.
“Prior to every Census, the ABS undertakes a review to ensure the Census provides the data people need. It also considers how to make the Census form more inclusive and as straightforward as possible for people to complete.
“Following this process, the Government decided to include a new topic of ‘sexual orientation and gender’ in the 2026 Census to be asked of people aged 16 years and over,” an ABS spokesperson said.
The 2026 gender questions will have options to choose man, woman and non-binary, as well as a free text field to allow people to describe the gender term they use.
“In addition, by using both the sex recorded at birth and gender questions, the ABS will create a new variable called ‘Gender experience’, which will provide information on cisgender, transgender and gender diverse populations for the first time in the Census.
“A separate question on people with intersex characteristics will not be included in the 2026 Census. The ABS undertook extensive testing to assess whether this information could be accurately collected in a Census context.”
The ABS said based on testing they were unable to develop a question in the 2026 Census that could be consistently understood and reliably answered by the general population.
“The ABS recognises the importance of data on variations of sex characteristics and will continue to work on meeting this data need through the ABS survey program,” an ABS spokesperson said.
The 2026 Census will be held on Tuesday 11 August.
