Data use considerations
Usual residents may not be included in the household’s Census form because they were away from the dwelling on Census Night. In this case they should be included in the Persons temporarily absent section of the form. This can occur in both Family and Group households.
Due to form limitations, a maximum of three people can be reported and coded as Temporarily absent from the dwelling. If more than three people are absent from the household, the additional people are unable to be included on the form.
Reporting relationships in respect to ‘Person 1’ on the Census form can make it difficult to establish the relationships within a household, especially dwellings containing blended families. In some cases, further information is used during processing to help determine relationships. This includes:
- Surname or family name
- Usual residence
- Marital status
If a child is listed on the Census form as 'Person 2' and both parents are usual residents, the response 'Child of both Person 1 and Person 2' is not available in the relationship question for 'Person 2'. In these cases an attempt is made to establish whether the child was a step-child or child of both parents using information such as surname. Despite these attempts there may be a small proportion of children coded to 'step-child' who may be a child of both parents. There may also be cases where the child of reference person (and a step-child of the partner) is incorrectly coded as a child of both parents.
Care should be taken when comparing this variable to other family data from within the ABS or external organisations or agencies. The definition of a family can differ between different statistical collections and may not match Census definitions.
An overcount of step children and an undercount of natural or adopted children for couple families has been identified for Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and Other Territories. Victoria was partially affected. South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory remain unaffected. Only step children in couple families where the spouse was temporarily absent were impacted. These children have been incorrectly categorised to the step child of male parent or female parent categories for both Child type (CTPP) and Child type (including grandchildren) (CTGP) variables. These children have also been incorrectly categorised to step child under 15, student step child or non-dependent step child for both Relationship in household (RLHP) and Relationship in household (including grandchildren) (RLGP) variables. This also means these families have been incorrectly categorised as step families in the Family blending (FBLF) variable.
This variable does not have a non-response rate as it is created during Census processing by using responses from more than one question on the Census form.
