2026 Census results: three releases from June 2027

The 2026 Census of Population and Housing was held on Tuesday 11 August 2026. The ABS will publish the results in three releases between June 2027 and early 2028. This page sets out the ABS's published plans as at October 2026, what is new in the 2026 Census, and how Censible will add each release.

Release dates

The ABS has announced three releases, each adding to the last.

• June 2027: most Census topics, including the new questions on sexual orientation and gender, and the final response rate.
• October 2027: a smaller set of topics, including employment.
• Early 2028: the remaining data, including the distance between where people live and where they work. The ABS's product guide also places SEIFA, homelessness estimates and the Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset in this release.

The ABS has not yet published a complete list of which topics fall in each release, or exact release days.

Census night and response

On 14 October 2026 the ABS reported about 10.5 million household forms received, and said the Census was on track for a national response rate above 95 per cent, against 96.1 per cent in 2021. More than 85 per cent of forms were expected to be completed online, the highest share of any Australian Census. These are preliminary figures; the final response rate comes with the first release.

What is new in the 2026 Census

• New topic: sexual orientation and gender, asked of people aged 16 and over.
• Changed topics: up to four ancestries can be reported, up from two; response options were updated for country of birth, language spoken at home and religious affiliation; liver disease was added to long-term health conditions; and income ranges were updated, as they are for every Census.
• Not asked in 2026: the number of children a woman has given birth to, which returns to being asked once a decade.

How the ABS will publish it

Several familiar products change for 2026. DataPacks and GeoPackages are replaced by a new aggregate data download tool, with a limited preview planned for April 2027 and first data in June 2027. Community Profiles are retired for 2026 data, although earlier ones stay available. QuickStats gains a population pyramid and downloads, and TableBuilder gains table previews, a graph view and time series datasets.

Boundaries

2026 Census results will be published on the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 4, which covers July 2026 to June 2031. Statistical areas, suburbs and postcodes on Edition 4 do not all match their 2021 equivalents, so a direct comparison with 2021 needs both years on the same boundaries.

What changes in Censible

Censible already holds the 2011, 2016 and 2021 Censuses on the 2026 boundaries, carried across with ABS correspondences. Until June 2027, its latest figures are the 2021 Census on those boundaries, with projections for 2026 and 2031 where a method supports them, each labelled as a projection.

Censible will add each release after the ABS publishes it. Because the earlier censuses are already on Edition 4, 2026 results line up with 2011, 2016 and 2021 for the same place without further adjustment. For topics in the first release, 2026 Census counts replace the 2026 projections. Work, travel to work and labour force figures stay at 2021 until the second release, and distance to work follows in the third.

Limitations

• Release months are the ABS's plans as at October 2026 and may change. Exact days have not been announced.
• The ABS has named only some of the topics in each release. This page will be updated as it publishes more.
• Response figures are preliminary. The final response rate is published with the first release.
• Sexual orientation and gender are asked for the first time, so there is no earlier Census to compare them with.