ABS statement on 2021 Census non-binary sex count

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will not be releasing a non-binary sex count in the first release of 2021 Census data on Tuesday 28 June.

The data collected from the sex question will be reported in the 2021 Census data releases as ‘Male’ and ‘Female’.

Where a respondent provided a male or female response and a non-binary sex response, the male or female response was used to determine a value. Otherwise, sex was derived using a statistical process of random allocation.

Later this year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will be doing more analysis on non-binary sex responses and will be working in consultation with key stakeholders in the LGBTQI+ community to understand the complexities, data quality and usefulness of the data. At this time, the ABS will be publishing our findings and looking ahead to the next Census.

For media requests and interviews, contact ABS Media at media@abs.gov.au or call 1300 175 070.