AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP
DIRECTIONS FOR 2011 CENSUS
This topic is being reviewed to consider expansion of the question to incorporate the collection of information about non-Australian citizenship and multiple citizenships.
JUSTIFICATION
Information about Australian citizenship is used to monitor the take-up of Australian citizenship by the overseas born population. In addition, citizenship data is used for the costing of reciprocal social security arrangements between countries.
Users have expressed an interest in expanded citizenship data. The collection of data regarding non-Australian and multiple citizenships has become increasingly important with the growing globalisation of the Australian economy, and changes to Australian citizenship laws that allow for dual/plural citizenship. There is currently no measurement of the number of Australian citizens holding multiple citizenships.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
A question on nationality was first asked in 1921, when respondents were asked to indicate what national subject they were by means of birthplace, parentage or naturalisation. In 1966 and 1971 the term ‘nationality or citizenship’ was used, and from 1976 onwards the question has used the word ‘citizenship’. Since 1986, the question on citizenship has been self-coding with only two response categories (Australian citizen or not).
In the lead up to the 2006 Census it was proposed that the question on Australian citizenship be excluded from that Census and included again in the 2011 Census. After consultation with key users of the data, a decision was made to retain the question for the 2006 Census.
USER REQUIREMENTS
Data on Australian citizenship are required:
- to monitor the take-up of Australian citizenship by the overseas born population
- for the costing of reciprocal social security arrangements between countries.
AVAILABILITY OF NON-CENSUS DATA
Census output serves as the benchmark for statistics on citizenship. This information can be updated by using:
- data on country of citizenship of settler arrivals, indicated on passenger cards completed by people entering and leaving Australia
- data on the number of migrants who become Australian citizens.
Both of these sources of information have limitations because they do not provide a complete picture of the total number of citizens at any point in time, nor do they provide reliable small area data.
2006 CENSUS QUESTION
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