This year’s Census to include questions on sexuality and gender identity

The 2026 Census represents a significant milestone for Australia’s LGBTQ+ people. For the first time, data on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex recorded at birth will be captured in the national census, writes Ali Khan.
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 LGBTQ+ 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, but it does not go far enough”.
The 2026 questions that will be added to the census are questions on both sex recorded at birth and gender. The ABS has announced that “The sex recorded at birth question is included in the Population section. Responses to the sex recorded at birth and gender questions will be used to generate data on trans and gender diverse populations.”
Nicholas highlighted that this does not necessarily capture everyone in the LGBTQ+ community. He said that proper data collection helps drive evidence-based services including victims services in the justice system, students in education, patients of health services, and training of the public service, as well as 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. Nicholas explained that some groups within the LGBTIQ+ community deserve stronger data collection.
He said that “in 2021, the ABS developed a census-specific “non-binary sex” to be captured within a question on sex. InterAction for Health and Human Rights (IHRA) objected to the approach to recording sex in the 2021 census because testing produced data that was meaningless, and the approach misrepresented people with innate variations of sex characteristics, causing real harm. Nicholas referred to IHRA’s statement that the 2020 ABS Standard on sex, gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual orientation was a product of this process and should be used by the ABS to develop its census questions for people with innate variations of sex characteristics.”
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 that more generally, 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.”
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 some communities within the LGBTIQ+ community. 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.
“Some people in the gay, bisexual and trans communities may have innate variations of sex characteristics and identify as Intersex.”
“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 the LGBTIQ+ Expert Advisory Committee which provided advice on the preparations for the collection, compilation and release of 2026 Census data.
The ABS said “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.
The ABS said “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 indicated that its testing shows it is 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.