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Questions on sexuality and gender to be part of Census trial
Questions on sexuality and gender to be part of Census trial

SBS Australia

time14-07-2025

  • SBS Australia

Questions on sexuality and gender to be part of Census trial

The first Census questions on sexual orientation and gender will be sent out to thousands of households as part of a practice version of the 2026 nationwide survey. More than 60,000 homes have been chosen by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to take part in a trial run in August in order to make sure the real event runs without incident. The test will include questions set to be in the 2026 Census, including the first set of questions in a national Census about sexual orientation and gender for people over 16. Questions about sexuality were set to be scrapped from the questionnaire, but the federal government backtracked on the decision in 2024 following criticism from LGBTIQ+ groups. Homes in Melbourne and Perth, as well as locations in regional Queensland, NSW and Western Australia, have been chosen for the voluntary test run. Census general manager Jenny Telford said the trial run would be critical to ensuring the nationwide questionnaire would be successful. "We are testing our collection processes and IT systems to ensure our processes work well and that the form captures the right information, in the right way," she said. "By taking part, you're helping us to improve the next Census for everyone and ensure it produces high-quality statistics." Testing will also be carried out to allow people to carry out the Census through myGov. The 2016 Census was beset by technical issues after the website hosting the questionnaire crashed on the night of the survey. The Census test is to be carried out on 5 August.

Next year's census to include sexual orientation question: StatCan
Next year's census to include sexual orientation question: StatCan

CTV News

time25-06-2025

  • Politics
  • CTV News

Next year's census to include sexual orientation question: StatCan

An employee makes his way to work at Statistics Canada, in Ottawa in a July 21, 2010, file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Next year's national census will include a new question asking respondents about their sexual orientation, Statistics Canada (StatCan) has confirmed to CTV News. In an emailed statement Wednesday, the agency said it has studied sexuality through 'a variety of health and social surveys' for more than two decades, but that the 2026 census will allow it to gather demographic data on LGBTQ2S+ Canadians with greater detail than ever before. In a report published last year, the agency noted that in consultations with stakeholder groups, the lack of detailed statistics on gender and sexuality 'was one of the most frequently reported perceived data gaps in the census content.' Existing surveys conducted by federal and provincial governments, non-governmental organizations and academia, the stakeholders said, weren't sufficiently robust for detailed research. StatCan says sexual orientation data will only be collected from census respondents over the age of 15.

Sexual orientation question to appear on census for first time in 2026
Sexual orientation question to appear on census for first time in 2026

Yahoo

time25-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Sexual orientation question to appear on census for first time in 2026

Canadian residents will be asked about their sexual orientation in next year's national census, CBC News has learned. While Statistics Canada has asked about sexual orientation in past surveys, next year will mark the first time the question will appear on the long-form census questionnaire that will go out to 25 per cent of Canadian residents in May 2026. The questions will not be included in the short-form census that goes out to 75 per cent of Canadian residents. The long-form census will also feature questions about homelessness and health problems for the first time. The questions for the census, which is conducted every five years, were approved by Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet on June 13. Most of them touch on the usual census topics such as the ethnic background of respondents and their families, education, housing, employment, citizenship and languages spoken. While Canadians are required by law to fill out the questionnaires, their answers remain confidential. They're used to produce statistics about Canada's population and often help inform where services are needed across the country. The question will provide a more complete picture of where people of different sexual orientations live across the country, and their socioeconomic backgrounds. The questions to be asked in next year's census include a respondent's sex at birth, with the option to select male or female. Respondents are also asked to provide their gender, with the option to choose man (or boy), woman (or girl) or write in their own answer. The census questionnaire also provides a definition of gender to guide respondents. "Gender refers to an individual's personal and social identity as a man (or boy), a woman (or a girl) or a person who is not exclusively a man (or a boy) or a woman (or a girl) for example, non-binary, agender, gender fluid, queer or two-spirit." Question 36, which is only to be asked for those aged 15 years and older, asks directly about sexual orientation, explaining that the information is being collected "to inform programs that promote equal opportunity for everyone living in Canada to share in its social, cultural and economic life." Respondents can choose between "heterosexual (i.e. straight), lesbian or gay, bisexual or pansexual" or write in their own answer. Sébastien Larochelle-Côté, director general of socioeconomic statistics and social data integration for Statistics Canada, says the question of sexual orientation was identified as a data gap about Canada's population in consultations leading up to the census questionnaire. "That's the primary reason why we are including sexual orientation in the census of population," Larochelle-Côté said. He said this will also allow the census data to be paired with information about transgender and non-binary people in Canada that the agency has been collecting through separate surveys. "We'll be able to get insights about the 2SLGBTQ+ population as a whole. And so that, in our view, is going to be providing very, very insightful information." Larochelle-Côté said the answers will also help inform government decision-making. "We know that sexual orientation has been identified as a motive of discrimination by the Canadian Human Rights Act," he said. "We know as well that there is a federal task force that recommended the 2SLGBTQ+ population as an equity group … we wanted to move with the times." Larochelle-Côté said other countries like the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand also ask about sexual orientation in their censuses, but he said it has not yet been asked in the United States, which conducts a census every 10 years. Information about homelessness in Canada is another information gap that Statistics Canada is hoping to fill. It also comes as the federal government has vowed to increase home-building across the country. Larochelle-Côté said Statistics Canada won't be able to reach those who are currently homeless on May 12, 2026, because the questionnaire is sent to homes and collective dwellings. But it will provide more information about people who have been homeless. The first question will ask whether a respondent "stayed in a shelter, on the street or in parks, in a makeshift shelter, in a vehicle or in an abandoned building" over the previous 12 months. The second will ask whether a respondent has lived temporarily with friends, family or others over the previous 12 months because they had nowhere else to live. Larochelle-Côté said the answers to those questions will shed light on where people are experiencing homelessness and can be cross-referenced with the socioeconomic characteristics of a respondent from the answers to other census questions. "We'll be able to have a better understanding of who is most at risk of experiencing homelessness," he said. Next year's census will also include new questions about the health of respondents, including whether the respondent has difficulty seeing, hearing, walking using stairs or using their hands or fingers. It will ask respondents if they have difficulty learning, remembering or concentrating, whether they have emotional, psychological or mental health conditions as well as whether they have other health problems or long-term conditions that have lasted or are expected to last for six months or more. The census will include a general question about how the respondent rates their health. This will help "better predict the demand for health-care services across the country, down to the lowest level of geography possible," said Larochelle-Côté. While similar questions have been asked in other surveys, Larochelle-Côté said this will be the first time they are asked in the Canadian census. Details of next year's census will be made public on July 4.

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