Australia11 August, 20262 min read
Australia’s 2026 Census Adds Optional Questions On Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity
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2026 Australian census includes optional questions on gender identity and sexual orientation. Questions apply to people aged 16 and over.
Census Adds Optional Questions
Australia’s 2026 census will ask people aged 16 and older optional questions about their sexual orientation and about their current gender identity, alongside a question about sex recorded at birth. The 66-question census is held on Tuesday (August 11, 2026), and the gender and sexual orientation questions are open to members of households 16 years and older.
Equality Australia legal director Heather Corkhill said the change will help “capture that rich diversity of what we have in Australia,” while Roxie Swart said, “We deserve to be counted as part of society.” The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) chief statistician David Gruen said the ABS found a “substantial level of interest” during public consultations, and the questions are optional because “for other people, it's information that they simply don't want to share.”
Backlash, Backflip, and Options
The Labor Party government that took office after nine years out of government in 2022 backflipped to allow the questions after having dropped them temporarily two years ago as “divisive.” Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said in August 2024, “We do not want to open up divisive debates in the community now,” before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed in a radio interview that a question about sexual orientation would be included.
The census response options for sexual orientation include straight, gay or lesbian, bisexual, don't know, prefer not to answer, or a term of the respondent's choice written in a designated blank space. For gender, the options are man, woman, nonbinary, prefer not to answer, or another term the respondent can provide, and the gender question is in addition to the question on sex recorded at birth.
Intersex Not Included
The ABS considered including a question about intersex status, but census spokesperson Emily Walter said it was excluded after testing found the question around variations of sex characteristics was not “as well understood.” Walter said, “We weren't confident that we could accurately capture that information,” while Equality Australia legal director Heather Corkhill said intersex communities have “the least visibility and the least understanding of their experiences.”
“We weren't confident that we could accurately capture that information.”
Corkhill said she was “really vital that we do include them,” and she added that Equality Australia is committed to working with intersex communities to ensure they are captured in the next survey. Beyond gender and sexual orientation, the ABS expanded the ancestry question to allow people to report up to four ancestries, and Liz Allen said the census was “the most progressive one we've had yet in Australia.”