00:03we've all got a bit of homework to do every five years we're asked to fill out the census it's
00:08a
00:09snapshot of Australia all of us at the exact same time kind of like a family portrait it'll provide
00:15a map of where we are today our ages education the work we do where we live our health and
00:21our
00:21cultural backgrounds plus so much more it's also a pointer to where we're headed in the future this
00:27is the biggest collection of data in Australia and tonight night of August 11 2026 every single
00:34one of us will be counted so here's what to expect firstly there are no leave passes if you're alive
00:41in Australia tonight you need to fill this up it's also published in 26 languages from Arabic all the
00:47way through to Vietnamese and the census is not just for Australian citizens it's also for permanent
00:54residents refugees people on temporary visas international students and even visitors from
01:01overseas the census counts how many people are in Australia at the last census in 2021 Australia
01:08counted more than 25 million people and you can expect that figure to be more than 28 million
01:14tonight but the census also captures other personal details and together those answers build a detailed
01:21picture of who we are and how Australia is changing that information helps us decide where services and
01:29infrastructure are needed from schools hospitals and aged care to roads public transport and local
01:36community services this year the ABS has updated questions across 10 existing topics so for example you can now
01:44record up to four lines of ancestry instead of the previous two for the first time this year anyone
01:50aged 16 and over will be asked questions about their gender identity and sexual orientation all up the
01:58questions in the census should take you roughly 30 minutes with so much personal information being
02:03collected what actually happens to it well the ABS wants to reassure everyone that your answers are kept
02:09confidential they're protected by law and only to be used for statistics they're not even shared with other
02:16government agencies and departments names and addresses are separated from the responses and any paper forms are
02:23destroyed as soon as the data is recorded one night millions of answers together through the census
02:30we're creating a portrait of Australia in 2026 who we are how we live and what our communities might need
02:38next
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