The 2026 Census has been taken. Not one number exists yet.
Census night was 11 August 2026. The first results come in June 2027. Here is where it is up to, every question that was asked, and what we can already tell you about your own suburb.
By Luke Metcalfe, Founder & Chief Data Scientist, 15+ years in property data analytics · September 2026Where it is up to
Census night was 11 August 2026. The forms are in and the Bureau of Statistics is counting. The first results are published in June 2027. Between now and then, anyone showing you a "2026 Census" figure for your suburb is showing you a 2021 figure or a guess. There is no 2026 Census data yet, anywhere, including here.
What does exist is the new map. The Bureau has already published the 2026 boundaries, and they are different. In fast-growing places one old area became many. Every address in Australia now has a 2021 Census area and a 2026 one, and for about one address in twenty-five they are not the same.
Watch one paddock become 43 Census areas
Clyde North, on Melbourne's south-eastern edge. Real satellite images from the European Space Agency, one per year from 2017 to August 2026, then the boundary the last Census used, then the boundaries the new one uses.
Why this matters to you. In 2021 the Bureau counted four homes and four people across this 2.8 square kilometres and gave it one Census area code. It now holds 2,232 properties and has been cut into 43 separate areas. Every 2021 figure anyone quotes for this place now describes 43 different places. If you are buying in a growth suburb, the suburb average you are shown may be describing a paddock. The full Clyde North story.
You do not have to wait until June 2027 to see what changed near you
The Census cannot tell you anything about 2026 yet. We can, because every new house gets an address the day it is built. These are four of the places that moved furthest, each with its own page, and every suburb in the country is measured the same way here.
Clyde North
One Census area became 43. Watch it happen.Melonba
440 homes at the last Census, about 4,000 addresses nowTarneit
The largest single addition in the country since 2021Donnybrook
722 homes then, about 7,000 addresses nowThe release dates
| When | What | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| April 2027 | Product preview | The ABS republishes 2021 data reshaped into the new 2026 products and boundaries. No new numbers. It exists so people can rebuild their pipelines before the real thing. |
| June 2027 | First release — about three quarters of everything | Age, households, housing, birthplace, language, religion, education, health, unpaid work, families. Down to SA1, plus suburbs, postcodes, LGAs and electorates. Mesh Block counts expected around the same time. QuickStats and TableBuilder both relaunch, and the ABS data APIs land near this date. |
| October 2027 | Second release — work and qualifications | Employment, industry, occupation, qualifications, journey to work, work destination zones, some housing detail, and income cross-checked against administrative data. |
| Early to mid 2028 | Third release — the derived indexes | SEIFA socio-economic indexes, distance to work, homelessness estimates, and the Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset. |
Every question that was asked
Two questions are brand new, twelve changed since 2021, and two were dropped. The right-hand column of each table is what the change does to anyone comparing this Census with the last one.
New for 2026: Gender
“What is Person 1's gender?”
Man, Woman, Non-binary, another term, prefer not to answer. Asked of everyone 16 and over.
First time ever asked. Separate from sex recorded at birth, which is its own question.
New for 2026: Sexual orientation
“How does Person 1 describe their sexual orientation?”
Straight, Gay or Lesbian, Bisexual, another term, don't know, prefer not to answer. 16 and over.
First time ever asked. This is the single most sensitive new field in the Census.
Changed since 2021
| Question | What changed | What it does to a comparison with 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Ancestry | You can now list up to four ancestries. It was two in 2021. | Anyone comparing 2021 and 2026 ancestry counts straight across will get it wrong. Totals go up because the question changed, not because the population did. |
| Sex recorded at birth | Reworded, and “another term” has been added alongside Male and Female. | Not the same field as the new gender question. They will get conflated by everyone who has not read the form. |
| Country of birth of parents | Reworded to “mother or parent 1” and “father or parent 2”. | Wording only. Counts stay comparable. |
| Long-term health conditions | Liver disease added. The mental health condition definition was tightened. | The mental health count will move for definitional reasons. Do not report it as a change in prevalence. |
| Household and family relationships | Updated for contemporary family structures. | Minor. |
| Labour force status | New option for looking for both full-time and part-time work. “Maternity leave” is now “parental leave”. | Small but real effect on unemployment sub-categories. |
| Income | Income brackets moved to reflect current pay and government payment levels. | Bracket boundaries moved, so every 2021-to-2026 income band comparison needs re-bucketing. This is the change most likely to break a chart. |
| Mode of travel to work | The bicycle category now includes e-bikes. | Cycling numbers will rise partly for this reason. |
| Unpaid care | More examples of caring activity given in the instructions. | Likely to lift reported carer counts. |
| Landlord type | Updated for government department name changes. | Cosmetic. |
| Religious affiliation | Response options reordered by how often they are chosen; examples updated. | Order effects are real in self-complete forms. Expect small movement from ordering alone. |
| Main language other than English | Picklist updated to the most commonly reported languages. | Minor. |
Removed for 2026
| Question | What happened | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Number of children ever born | Dropped for 2026. Returns in 2031 as a once-a-decade item. | Any fertility product we build stays on 2021 until 2031. There is no 2026 update coming. |
| Qualification completed before 1998 | Off the paper form, kept on the online form for eligible respondents. | Mixed-mode field. Treat with care. |
Unchanged, and safe to compare straight across
Name and date of birth, Address on Census night, Marital status, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, Australian citizenship, Year of arrival in Australia, Proficiency in spoken English, Highest year of schooling, Attendance at educational institution, Core activity need for assistance, Service in Australian Defence Force, Type of tenure, Housing costs, Number of bedrooms, Number of motor vehicles, Hours worked, Occupation, Main tasks in occupation, Internal migration, one year and five years ago.
Three things worth knowing before June 2027
- The boundaries changed before the numbers did. The Bureau redrew its statistical areas for 2026. In fast-growing places one old area became many new ones, so "my suburb in 2021" against "my suburb in 2026" is two different maps unless somebody does the joining work. We have done it for every address in the country. If you hold 2021 Census data yourself, one code in ten will not join in 2026.
- Ancestry and income are not comparable straight across. Ancestry moved from two responses to four, and the income brackets moved. Both totals will shift for reasons that have nothing to do with who lives where.
- The number of children ever born was dropped. It returns in 2031. Anything built on it stays on the 2021 figure for another five years.
For developers: the same answer as a request
Everything on this page comes from data built for the Microburbs API. The API already resolves any address and returns its mesh block today. Three Census requests are specified and being built on top of it; they are not live yet, and this page will say so until they are. Access and plans are on the API access page.
| Request, coming | What it will answer |
|---|---|
GET /v1/census/resolve?gnaf_pid=GAVIC720355173 | Which Census area this address is in, for 2021 and for 2026, and whether it changed. |
GET /v1/census/lineage?mesh_block_2021=21327400000 | What an old area became, with the ABS's own population-weighted shares. This one returns 43 rows. |
GET /v1/census/releases | Which Census data exists today and which is still to come, with dates. |
Read the API documentation for what is live today, or see worked examples of the three Census requests as they will answer.
Sources: the Bureau of Statistics' 2026 Census product guide, topics plan and ASGS Edition 4 boundaries and correspondences, all read in September 2026. Satellite imagery: Copernicus Sentinel-2, European Space Agency.
Census 2026 on Microburbs: Where the Census is up to · The places that changed most · Clyde North · Melonba · Tarneit · Donnybrook · Will my 2021 analysis still work? · For developers
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