Next Tuesday, Australia will do something both impressively ambitious and remarkably detailed: counting everyone.
That includes people in city apartments and remote communities. It includes workers on offshore oil rigs and passengers aboard cruise ships in Australian waters. It is a vast national undertaking, built one answer at a time.
People have been organising censuses for nearly 6,000 years. Some of the earliest known censuses were carried out in ancient Mesopotamia around 3800BC, counting people, livestock and food supplies. Next Tuesday’s Census is mercifully less interested in your goats.
Australia’s first national Census took place in 1911. Field officers travelled by foot, horse, cart and bicycle to collect the forms, before every result was tabulated by hand.
This year, for the first time, Australians have been able to subscribe through myGov to receive Census updates and access the online form.
Those who did not subscribe through myGov will still receive instructions in their letterbox, with options to complete the Census online or by post.
Preparations for the 2026 Census began while the 2021 Census was still underway. Each takes years of planning, consultation, testing, community engagement and fieldwork.
That effort is necessary because the Census works best when everyone is counted. The Australian Bureau of Statistics works with communities across the country, including people who can be harder to reach. Special teams contact people sleeping rough and travel to some of our most remote locations.
Around 30,000 Census staff have been trained to help deliver this year’s count. On Census night, the ABS expects the online system to process up to 20,000 forms per minute.
In the 2026 Census, every answer matters. Together, those answers help us understand the Australia of today and plan for the Australia of tomorrow.
