2016 Australian census

The 2016 Australian census was the seventeenth national population census held in Australia.[2] The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was counted as 23,401,892 – an increase of 8.8 per cent or 1,894,175 people since the 2011 census.[3] Norfolk Island joined the census for the first time in 2016, adding 1,748 to the population.

Seventeenth Australian census
General information
CountryAustralia
Date taken9 August 2016 (2016-08-09)
Total population23,401,892[1]
Percent change 8.8%
Annual percent change 1.76%
Most populous state or territoryNew South Wales (7,480,228)
Least populous state or territoryJervis Bay (391)

The ABS annual report revealed that there were $24 million additional expenses accrued due to the outage on the census website.[4]

Results from the 2016 census were available to the public on 11 April 2017, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website, two months earlier than for any previous census. The second release of data occurred on 27 June 2017 and a third data release was from 17 October 2017.[5][6] Australia's next census is scheduled for 2021.

Collection methods

The 2016 census had a response rate of 95.1% and a net undercount of 1.0%, with 63% of people completing the Census online.[7]

In the period leading up to census date the Australian Government decided that the retention period for names and addresses would be increased to up to four years, from 18 months in the 2006 and 2011 censuses, leading to concerns about privacy and data security. As such, some Australian Senate crossbenchers (from the Greens, Nick Xenophon Team and Jacqui Lambie Network) said they would not complete those specific sections of the census,[8] despite the fines associated with incorrect completion of the census.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the first release of census data became available to the public on the ABS website on 11 April 2017, two months earlier than for any previous census. The second release of data occurred on 27 June 2017 and a third data release was from 17 October 2017.[9]

Online
ABS website message after the 2016 online census was shut down

For the first time, the ABS significantly favoured internet submission of census forms over the traditional paper forms, claiming it expected more than 65% of Australians would complete the census online.[10] Reflecting this new preference, the tagline of the ad campaign for the census was the rhyming slogan "Get online on August 9".[11][12] Across many regions, paper forms were no longer delivered by default to homes, and households that wished to complete a paper census had to order such forms via an automated hotline. Letters were sent to each dwelling with unique code numbers that people would need to either login to the census website, or order a paper form if they preferred.[13] By census night, many households had still not received such a letter.[14] Contrary to previous years where censuses were both delivered and retrieved from households by dedicated census employees, in 2016 most of the paperwork relating to the census was delivered from and to the ABS by Australia Post.

The 2016 census was met by a significant controversy, which meant that many Australians could not complete the census online on the designated census day.[15] The ABS census website shut down at about 7:30 pm AEST on the night the census was to be completed. According to the ABS, throughout 9 August the census website received four denial-of-service attacks. At 7:30 pm, when the site was being heavily used, a software failure meant that the ABS was unable to keep blocking the denial-of-service attacks, leading to the failure of a router. As a result, the ABS decided to close down the system as a precaution. The 15th Chief Statistician, David Kalisch stated that no census data were compromised.[16][17][18] The Australian Signals Directorate assisted the ABS to bring the infrastructure back online more than 24 hours after the closure.[19][20][21] The census website was restored at 2:30 pm on 11 August.[22]

On the same day Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated his unhappiness over the event, which had "been a failure of the ABS", with his expectation that "heads will roll" once a review was complete.[23] Leader of the opposition Bill Shorten said that the 2016 census had been the "worst-run ... in the history of Australia".[24] The ABS blamed service provider IBM for the failure in the online census, saying that IBM had advised on the preparedness and resilience to DDoS attacks and had not offered any further protections that could be employed.[25] On 31 August, Parliament initiated an inquiry into the 2016 census.[26][27] It released its findings on 24 November and found that no individual party was responsible but it was shared between the government, IBM, and the sub-contractors.[28]

The census forms were able to be submitted online until 23 September. Once collection was complete, the ABS issued an announcement which confirmed that in spite of the initial online problems, there was a preliminary response rate of more than 96%. This consisted of 4.9 million (over 58%) online submissions and 3.5 million paper forms. The preliminary response rate was similar to the previous two census response rates of 95.8% in 2006 and 96.5% in 2011.[29]

An independent panel established by the Australian Statistician to quality assure the data from the 2016 census found it was fit for purpose, comparable to previous Australian and international censuses and can be used with confidence.[30][31]

"The Independent Assurance Panel I established to provide extra assurance and transparency of Census data quality concluded that the 2016 Census data can be used with confidence."

— David Kalisch, Chief Statistician.

Census questions

The Census form had 51 questions relating to the characteristics of individuals, plus an extra nine questions relating to households. Of the sixty questions, the following two questions were optional:[32]

  • What is the person's religion?
  • Does each person agree to his/her name and address and other information on this form being kept by the National Archives of Australia and then made publicly available after 99 years?

Population and dwellings

The population counts for Australian states and territories were that New South Wales remains the most populous state, with 7,480,228 people counted, ahead of Victoria (5,926,624) and Queensland (4,703,193). Australian Capital Territory (ACT) experienced the largest population growth of any state or territory over the past five years, with an increase of 11.2% while Tasmania had the smallest growth at 3.0% since the last census in 2011.[33] Persons count based on place of usual residence on Census night.

States and territoriesMaleFemaleTotal% change
New South Wales3,686,0143,794,2177,480,228 8.1%
Victoria2,908,0773,018,5495,926,624 10.7%
Queensland2,321,8892,381,3084,703,193 8.6%
Western Australia1,238,4191,235,9942,474,410 10.5%
South Australia825,997850,6521,676,653 5.0%
Tasmania249,478260,482509,965 3.0%
Australian Capital Territory195,739201,653397,39711.2%
Northern Territory118,570110,266228,833 8.0%
Other / External territoriesMaleFemaleTotal% change
Christmas Island1,1307121,843
Norfolk Island8199301,748
Cocos (Keeling) Islands268273544
Jervis Bay Territory216172391
Commonwealth of Australia11,546,63811,855,24823,401,892 8.8%
Source:[34][35][33] External territories[36][37][38][39]

"Other Territories"

The inclusion of Norfolk Island in Other Territories was new for 2016, following an amendment to the Acts Interpretation Act, 1901. In the 2016 Census, there were 1,748 people, compared with a population of 1,796 in 2011 (Norfolk Island Government Census). Of these 46.8% were male and 53.2% were female. The enumeration of Norfolk Island was an area of special attention for the ABS.

Age
Age2016 Census
NumberPercentage
Median age38–
    0–4 years1,464,7796.3%
    5–9 years1,502,6466.4%
    10–14 years1,397,1836.0%
    15–19 years1,421,5956.1%
    20–24 years1,566,7936.7%
    25–29 years1,664,6027.1%
    30–34 years1,703,8477.3%
    35–39 years1,561,6796.7%
    40–44 years1,583,2576.8%
    45–49 years1,581,4556.8%
    50–54 years1,523,5516.5%
    55–59 years1,454,3326.2%
    60–64 years1,299,3975.6%
    65–69 years1,188,9995.1%
    70–74 years887,7163.8%
    75–79 years652,6572.8%
    80–84 years460,5492.0%
    85 years and over486,8422.1%
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics[40]

Country of birth

Of all residents over two-thirds (66.7% or 15,614,835) were born in Australia. Over a quarter of the population (26.3% or 6,163,667 persons) said they were born overseas, plus 1.6 million did not state any response. The proportion of overseas-born people from Asia has increased from 33% in 2011 to 40%, while Europe has declined from 40% in 2011 to 34% in 2016.

Country of birth of Australian residents at 2016 census[41]

However, England (907,572 or 3.9% of Australia's population) remains the most common country of birth, followed by New Zealand (518,466 or 2.2%).[42] It was question 12 on the 2016 Census Household Paper Form.[43]

Proportion of overseas-born population.[44]

  England (14.7%)
  New Zealand (8.4%)
  China (8.3%)
  India (7.4%)
  Philippines (3.8%)
  Vietnam (3.6%)
  Italy (2.8%)
  South Africa (2.6%)
  Malaysia (2.2%)
  Scotland (1.9%)
  Others (44.3%)
Country of BirthPopulationPercent of
population		Ref(s)
Australia15,614,83566.7%[45]
New South Wales4,899,09065.5%[46]
Victoria3,845,49364.9%[47]
Queensland3,343,65771.1%[48]
South Australia1,192,54671.1%[49]
Western Australia1,492,84260.3%[50]
Tasmania411,49080.7%[51]
Northern Territory157,53168.8%[52]
Australian Capital Territory269,68268.0%[53]
Total, Overseas-born6,163,66726.3%
Oceania
New Zealand518,4622.2%[54]
Europe
England907,5723.9%[42]
Scotland119,4200.4%[55]
Wales28,0470.1%[56]
Northern Ireland23,0250.1%[57]
Italy174,0440.7%[58]
Germany102,5950.4%[59]
Greece93,7450.4%[60]
Republic of Ireland74,8950.4%[61]
Netherlands70,1740.3%[62]
Poland45,3650.2%[63]
Croatia43,6810.2%[64]
France31,1240.1%[65]
Portugal15,8090.1%[66]
Spain15,3960.1%[67]
Other European Countries–
Asia
China[lower-alpha 1]509,5572.2%[68]
India455,3881.9%[69]
Philippines232,3841.0%[70]
Vietnam219,3570.9%[71]
Malaysia138,365–[72]
Sri Lanka109,853[73]
South Korea98,7750.4%[74]
Hong Kong86,888-[75]
Lebanon78,651-[76]
Indonesia73,217–[77]
Iraq67,355–[78]
Thailand66,231–[79]
Pakistan61,915–[80]
Iran58,106–[81]
Africa
South Africa162,4480.7%[82]
America––
United States86,1330.4%[83]
Canada43,049–[84]
Polynesia––
Fiji61,473–[85]
Not stated1,636,0007.0%[86]
Totals, Australia23,401,892100.0%–
Source: Bureau of Statistics[45][86]

Culture, ancestry and language

Ancestries

The highest reported ancestries in Australia and for the external territory of Norfolk Island as a percentage of population.[87] Results of the ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2016 are as follows.

Australia
AncestryNumberPercentage
English7,852,22436.1%
Australian7,298,24333.5%
Irish2,388,05811.0%
Scottish2,023,4709.3%
Chinese1,213,9035.6%
Source: ABS[88]

External territories
Norfolk Island
AncestryNumberPercentage
Australian55322.8%
English54322.4%
Pitcairn48420.0%
Scottish1456.0%
Irish1255.2%
Source: ABS[89]
Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders

There were 649,171 Indigenous Australians, who made up 2.8% of Australia's population.

Religion
Religious affiliation2016 census
NumberPercentage
Christian12,201,60052.1%
    Anglican3,101,19113.3%
    Baptist345,1421.5%
    Catholic (Roman)5,291,83022.6%
    Christianity (defined and not defined)768,6496.3%
    Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Assyrian Apostolic567,6802.1%
    Jehovah's Witnesses82,5100.4%
    Latter-day Saints61,6390.3%
    Lutheran174,0190.7%
    Pentecostal260,5601.1%
    Presbyterian and Reformed524,3382.3%
    Salvation Army48,9390.2%
    Seventh-day Adventist62,9450.3%
    Uniting Church in Australia870,1833.7%
Non-Christian1,464,1626.3%
    Buddhism563,6742.4%
    Hinduism440,3301.9%
    Islam604,4202.6%
    Judaism91,0220.4%
    Sikhism125,9010.5%
No Religion7,040,71730.1%
Not stated or unclear2,238,7359.6%
Australia23,401,892100%
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.[90][91][92][93]

Language

Homelessness

The number of homeless people in Australia jumped by more than 14,000 – or 14 per cent – in the five years to 2016, according to census data. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said 116,000 people were homeless on census night in 2016, representing 50 homeless people per 10,000.[94] The majority of homeless people in Australia were male.[95] In addition, Indigenous Australians and recent migrants were over-represented among the homeless.[95]

Gender

The 2016 census was the first to offer an option other than "male" or "female", however, this option was only available on a special version of the online form.[96][97] Some trans people criticized the difficulty in accessing this alternative form. The online nature of the census also prevented transmasculine people who checked the "male" box from answering questions about pregnancy and having children, as it would automatically skip those questions.

gollark: They can do BLE too, apparently.
gollark: Megabits, yes.
gollark: 256Kbps, 1Mbps or 2Mbps are options, higher data rates mean worse range or something, this information thing says "Approx. 20m [range] at 0dbm.".
gollark: Er, not specs, Micropython docs.
gollark: Hold on, I'll check the specs.

See also

Notes
  1. (excluding Special administrative regions of China (SARs) and Taiwan).

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  62. 2016 Census QuickStats – People in Australia who were born in Netherlands
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  64. 2016 Census QuickStats – People in Australia who were born in Croatia
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