Personal details

The Census Household Form is used to capture information for all people living in the household. The paper form allows up to six household members and the online form up to 25. If there are more than six people at the address on Census Test night, the easiest way to complete the Census Test is online. Alternatively, you can request an extra paper form.

The order people are listed in helps us work out household and family relationships for the people who were present on Census Test night.

If you want to fill in your Census Test separately from your household, you will be able to get a Census number to complete online or request paper form by calling the Census Contact Centre.

Person 1 should be the householder. This is ideally an adult who has a meaningful relationship with most of the people in the dwelling. For example, in a family with parent(s) and a child or baby, the householder (Person 1) would usually be one of the parents, the other parent would be Person 2 and the child or baby Person 3.

For households with more than one related and/or unrelated family, the householder could be considered the person who pays the bills or someone that is responsible for making household decisions. Children aged 15 years or under should not be Person 1.

Person 2 should be the spouse or partner of Person 1, if they have one. If not, Person 2 can be any other adult (include adults such as parents, siblings and extended family members, before children or babies) staying in the household on Census Test night. If no other adult is present, a child or baby should be Person 2.

Person 3 should be the child or baby of Person 1 and 2, if they have one. If not, Person 3 can be any other person present in the household. Include related adults and children first, followed by unrelated adults or children such as housemates, flat mates, boarders, visitors or friends.

For households with more than one related and/or unrelated families, adults should be entered before their children or babies, followed by members of the next family.

If there are more than six people at this address the easiest way to complete your Census Test is online or you can request a paper form.

(Q6 in the Census Household Form)

Providing names makes it:

• simpler for the person filling out the form to remember which person they are answering for
• clear to see the different family relationships in each household
• easier for us to process the form correctly.

After data collection and processing, names and addresses are removed from other personal and household information. We store names and addresses securely and separately from one another. The Separation Principle ensures no one can view your name and address with other Census data.

Our legislation is very clear that we can't release information in a way that could identify anyone.

You can find more information about privacy at the ABS.

• Include all adults, children, babies and visitors who spent the night of Tuesday 5 August 2025 in this dwelling.
• Include any person who usually lives in this dwelling who returned on Wednesday 6 August 2025 without being included on a form elsewhere, for example, shift workers.
• For all other cases of people away, please include them in the section for People Away only (Questions 59 and 60 in the Census Household Form).
• If there is a baby in the house who has not been given a name yet, enter ‘BABY’ for ‘First or given name’.
• If a person has only one name, on the paper form enter it once into the name or surname field. If using the online form, the name will need to be entered in both the name and surname fields.
• If someone in your dwelling is completing a separate form for privacy reasons do not provide their name on the main form. Please note who you record as 'Person 1' and 'Person 2' as this information will be useful for the person completing a separate form.

(Q7 in the Census Household Form)

Census data about different age groups informs almost all decisions made by governments, businesses and local community groups. It provides crucial information for childcare, health services and much more.

• Date of birth is the date that the person was born.
• Age is the person’s age on Census Test night, Tuesday 5 August 2025.
• Paper form only: Please try and answer both date of birth and age. If you don’t know the date of birth, enter their age.
• Online form only: Age is required only if the person’s date of birth is not known.
• If the person is less than one year old and their date of birth is not known, enter ‘0’ in the age box.

(Q8 in the Census Household Form)

This question has been included in previous Censuses and has been updated for the Census Test. Information on sex recorded at birth is important for understanding many aspects of Australia’s population, including:

• population projections
• estimates of life expectancy
• family structure.

• Select 'Male', 'Female' or ‘Another term’ for each person in the household on Census Test night. This response should reflect what each person had recorded at the time of birth.
• Select ‘Another term’ when the person was registered as something other than male or female at birth.
• If a person’s gender is different to their sex recorded at birth, they should still report their sex recorded at birth at this question. People aged 16 years and over can report their current gender in the separate question on gender.
• Select one response only.

A person's sex recorded at birth refers to what was determined by sex characteristics observed at birth or infancy.

Responses to the sex recorded at birth and gender questions are used to produce trans and gender diverse data.

The Census does not collect data on innate variations of sex characteristics. Answers to the sex recorded at birth question should reflect what was registered at birth.

All personal information provided in your Census Test form remains strictly confidential to the ABS.

A person can fill in a separate form to keep their answers separate from other respondents in the household, for example, for privacy reasons. Find more information about completing the Census Test in your preferred way.

(Q9 in the Census Household Form)

This is a new question for the Census Test and will be included in the 2026 Census. 

Gender relates to a person's social or cultural identity as a man, woman, non-binary person or another term. A person's gender may change over time and may not be the same as their sex recorded at birth. Responses to the sex recorded at birth and gender questions are used to produce trans and gender diverse data.  

This information helps inform policy, planning, resource allocation and service delivery. This could include provision of targeted funding to address health disparities for different genders. 

This question is only asked of people aged 16 years and over.  

• This question is about how the person currently identifies or expresses their gender. This may be different to sex recorded at birth and may be different to what is indicated on legal documents.
• Where there are multiple terms used to describe the person’s gender, enter the term they most strong align with.
• ‘Non-binary’ is a term describing gender identities that are not exclusively man or woman.
• If the person’s gender is not listed in the response options, select the ‘Uses another term (specify)’ option and enter their gender in the box. Where there are multiple terms used to describe their gender, the term they most strongly align with should be entered.
• A person can select one response only.
• A person can select the ‘Prefer not to answer’ option.

The terms sex and gender are interrelated and often used interchangeably, however they have different meanings. Sex recorded at birth refers to what was determined by sex characteristic observed at birth or infancy.

All personal information provided in your Census Test form remains strictly confidential to the ABS. 

A person can complete a separate form to keep their answers separate from other people in the household, for example, for privacy reasons. Find more information about completing the Census Test in your preferred way.

(Q10 in the Census Household Form)

The aim of this question is to collect how each person in the household is related to Person 1 and Person 2. This question tells us about all the different kinds of families in Australia. This information helps to plan support services and housing in different communities.

• No answer is required for Person 1.
• If more than one response applies, select only the option that shows the relationship that most closely applies.
• If the relationship to Person 1 or Person 2 is not listed in the response options, use the ‘specify’ text boxes to enter in the relationship.
• Examples of relationships other than those listed on the form: Son-in-law, grandchild, aunt, boarder.
• ‘De facto relationship’ is two people who live together in a couple relationship who are not registered as being married to each other. Includes registered relationships such as civil partnerships or civil unions.

A person can fill in a separate form to keep their answers separate from other respondents in the household, for example, for privacy reasons. A separate paper form may also be used if there are more than six people at the address on Census Test night.

The person filling in the separate form will need to refer to the main household form to see who Person 1 and Person 2 are.

If more than one response is relevant, select only the option that shows the relationship that most closely applies.

If you are unsure of who Person 1 and Person 2 are and:

• the person is not related to anyone in the dwelling, then select 'Unrelated flatmate or co-tenant of Person 1'
• the person is related to someone else in the dwelling, then select 'Other relationship to Person 1 (specify)' and provide as much detail as possible.

(Q11 in the Census Household Form)

This question collects data on different marital statuses, including registered marriages. This includes same-sex marriages. Information on marital status is an indication of transitions in and out of marriage. It is used to help make policy decisions about legal and health related services and financial support.

Select the option that best fits the situation on Census Test night.

• ‘Married’ refers to registered marriages.
• If the person is a child and therefore not married, select ‘Never married’.
• If the person is in a traditional Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander marriage, select ‘Married’.
• If the person is divorced or widowed and has remarried, select ‘Married’.
• If the person is in a de facto relationship and has not been in a registered marriage, select ‘Never married’.
• If the person is divorced and has not remarried, select ‘Divorced’, even if the person currently lives in a de facto relationship.
• ‘Separated but not divorced’ refers to separation from a registered marriage.

(Q12 in the Census Household Form)

The Census is one of the best sources of data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Information from the Census guides government reporting, funding and planning both nationally and for local services and programs.

This information is used to:

• find out what services are needed
• strengthen business cases when applying for financial support
• understand the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• tell stories within the community, such as increases in people completing further study.

• For people of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin, select both 'Yes' boxes.

(Q13 in the Census Household Form)

Many people in Australia travel or move regularly, and there are lots of reasons why people may not be at home on Census Test night. This question lets us count people where they usually live and makes sure the information for their community is right.

It’s important to correctly count how many people live in a community because the information is used for planning services and infrastructure. It makes sure that people aren't counted twice (once where they usually live and once where they filled out a Census Test form).

This question also helps to understand how many people don’t have a usual place to live.

• For people who usually live in another country and who are visiting Australia for less than one year, select 'Other country'.
• For other people, 'usually live' means the address at which the person has lived, or intends to live, for a total of six months or more in 2025.
• For international students living in Australia for at least one year, enter your current address in Australia. It doesn’t matter if you have gone home for holidays during this time.
• For boarders at boarding school, enter the address of the boarding school or college.
• Paper form only: For people who have no fixed or return address (for example, due to family conflict or eviction), write ‘NONE’ in the ‘Suburb/Locality’ box.
• Online form only: For people who have no fixed or return address (for example, due to family conflict or eviction), select 'Elsewhere in Australia', then choose ‘Enter Address Manually’ and enter 'NONE' in the 'Suburb/Locality' box.
• Online form only: If the person is entering an address manually for ‘Elsewhere in Australia’ and they usually live in Norfolk Island or other external territories, such as Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Jervis Bay, please select ‘Other external territory’ in the State/Territory box.

(Q14 in the Census Household Form)

These questions give us a picture of how people have moved around Australia. Australia is one of the most mobile societies in the world, 15% of people in Australia moved in the year before the 2021 Census, and 41% changed their address in the five years prior to the Census.

It's important to know where people have moved to and where they have come from, to help plan for future growth in different areas.

• For people who had no usual address on 5 August 2024, select ‘Elsewhere in Australia’ and enter the address at which they were then living.
• If the complete address is not known, please provide as much of the address as possible.
• Paper form only: If the person is less than one year old, leave blank.
• Paper form only: For people who had no fixed or return address write ‘NONE’ in the ‘Suburb/Locality’ box.
• Online form only: For people who had no fixed or return address (for example, due to family conflict or eviction), select 'Elsewhere in Australia' and enter 'NONE' in the 'Suburb/Locality' box.
• Online form only: If the person is providing an address for 'Elsewhere in Australia' and they usually live in Norfolk Island or other external territories, such as Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Jervis Bay, please select 'Other external territory' in the State/Territory box.

(Q15 in the Census Household Form)

• For people who had no usual address on 5 August 2020, select ‘Elsewhere in Australia’ and enter the address at which they were then living.
• If the complete address is not known, please provide as much of the address as possible.
• Paper form only: If the person is less than five years old, leave blank.
• Paper form only: For people who had no fixed or return address, write ‘NONE’ in the ‘Suburb/Locality’ box.
• Online form only: For people who had no fixed or return address (for example, due to family conflict or eviction), select 'Elsewhere in Australia' and enter 'NONE' in the 'Suburb/Locality' box.
• Online form only: If the person is providing an address for 'Elsewhere in Australia' and they usually live in Norfolk Island or other external territories, such as Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Jervis Bay, please select 'Other external territory' in the State/Territory box.