Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling (BEDD and BEDRD)
This variable provides a single count of all bedrooms in each occupied private dwelling, including caravans in caravan parks. It is applicable to all occupied private dwellings.
How this variable is created
Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling is a dwelling variable that is created based on responses given for the Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling question on the Census Household Form. An image of this question is provided below.
Data for this variable is captured automatically from written numeric responses, or the 'None' mark box can be marked. Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling codes numeric responses from 0 to 29 bedrooms as reported. Responses of 30 or more bedrooms are coded into the grouped category '30 or more bedrooms'.
The Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling (ranges) variable groups responses to this question differently, responses from 0 to 5 are reported singly, responses for 6 or more bedrooms are coded into the grouped category of '6 or more bedrooms'.
Variable history
A question on the number of rooms/bedrooms has been included in every Australian Census since 1911, however the question relating to Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling was first asked for the 1976 Census.
While the 1986 Census Household Form asked householders to indicate the numbers of various room types, only the number of bedrooms was retained in the computer record. The 1991 and 1996 Censuses collected data on the number of bedrooms only. Since the 2001 Census, respondents have been asked to write in the number of bedrooms in their dwelling rather than mark a response category.
An additional 'None' mark box was added in 2006. No changes were made in 2016.
Non-response rate
Item non-response rates are a measure of how many questions were not responded to as a proportion of the total number of questions applicable to the dwelling. In this instance the response is left as not stated.
The majority of item non-response is attributable to the households who did not respond to the Census at all. Refer to item non-response rates for more information. The second and smaller contributor to item non-response is when people return a Census form but may not answer a particular question(s). For more information, refer to Understanding Census data quality.
The non-response rate for this variable was 7.4% (5.4% in 2011).
Data usage notes
Dwellings with a high number of bedrooms reported were checked manually to ensure that they match the actual response on the form. The data may include a small proportion of dwellings with unusually large numbers of bedrooms, as all numeric responses are accepted as reported.
This classification is used to calculate the average number of persons per bedroom in the QuickStats and Community Profiles products. There has been a change in methodology used to calculate the average number of persons per bedroom between the 2011 and 2016 Censuses. More information on this can change can be found in this publication on the Comparing the average number of persons per bedroom over time page.
Further information
A definition of Number of Bedrooms in Private Dwelling is available in the 2016 Census Dictionary.
Household form question image
Question 55 as it appeared on the 2016 Census Household Form:
A text only version of the online Census Household form is available from the Downloads tab.
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