Overview

• The trial is scheduled for August 5 and will include around 60,000 households in selected communities across Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales.
• For the first time, the questionnaire will ask people over 16 about sexual orientation and gender identity and will update the sex question to record ‘sex recorded at birth’ and use gender-neutral terms in family relationship items.
• The ABS is partnering with Services Australia to test Census access through MyGov accounts, allowing users to receive alerts and links to online forms during the trial.
• Other questionnaire updates include allowing up to four ancestry responses, adding bicycles and e-bikes to travel mode options, tweaking work and labour questions, and reviewing legacy Community Profiles.
• Results will inform final refinements to collection processes and IT systems ahead of the 2026 Census.