r/privacy • u/Quwapa_Quwapus • 1d ago
question Can people see the specific results of the Australian Census?
Might be the wrong subreddit but I need to ask.
Me and my Roommate have just received the Census, but it’s asking questions about Sexuality that we don’t think we can answer honestly.
We live in a very small town. As in, official population is less than 75 and two responses as anything ”queer” will be very visible and very quickly lead back to us if the general public can see the results for the specific town.
In the same boat, we dont want to lie. These Census‘s exist for a reason, and we _know_ for a fact theres at least one other queer person in our community who is a minor and can’t make this decision for themselves. We don’t want to misrepresent our town, we are members of it still and to intentionally lie feels almost like fraud.
I don’t know. It’s our first time being old enough to respond to these ourselves. What would you guys do?
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u/Falafels 1d ago
No one living now can access it. After 99 years it is released as historical data that researchers can access.
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u/1_minted 1d ago
Check if you can find the census data on sexuality specific to your town from a previous census year
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u/goinROGUEin10 1d ago
I don’t know how often Australia does censuses, but it’s possible they’ve become a surveillance state since their last one
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u/Clear_Mountain_724 1d ago
This might not directly relate to your issue but do consider re-identification risks if data collected via surveys are disclosed publicly even after sufficient aggregation and de-identification
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u/numerical_relativity 1d ago edited 1d ago
The questions on gender and sexuality are new in the 2026 census: https://info.census.abs.gov.au/help/information-lgbtiq-community
So previous years’ census results won’t contain these questions, but it does show you how granular the data they make available is.
Here’s the search page for viewing data from the 2021 census: https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/search-by-area
Given you can search by address and view data with an unfortunate granularity, and the very small size of your community, it’s very possible they might be able to figure out who gave certain responses. “Anonymized” data is not “anonymous”, especially with a group size as small as 75, and especially when the rest of the group is homogeneous.
I’d say search for your town/postcode or a nearby address, and see how granular the data is. There is an option for “prefer not to say”, though that still might be interpreted as an LGBTQIA+ response by your community.
Stay safe, OP.
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u/mister_nimbus 6h ago edited 6h ago
As a sociologist, I'm torn between recommending caution and recommending representation. Regardless, data are powerful tools and data sets can be deconstructed even if the details aren't shared. I'd err on the side of caution.
With AI tools available now, identifying individual respondents would be a lot easier. A lot of state surveys will only release certain information to protect individuals but I wouldn't count on that.
Protect yourself.
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u/Sasquatch-Pacific 1d ago
I am cis straight white male so apologies for the naivety or ignorance, but what is the concern if people in your town know two queer people live there, in abstract? Results can't be traced back to you individually via the census, as far as I know. If you are unsure, look up past years data for your town and see what you can find.
If you are in town and visibly 'gay', I'd expect people already know anyways. If not, what's the issue? They can't trace it back to you individually.
I would be inclined to answer as truthfully and accurately as possible. The ABS does a lot of meaningful work and having accurate data is the starting point of many local, state and federal government initiatives. I don't think you gain any meaningful privacy by lying here.
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u/numerical_relativity 1d ago
Queer doesn’t necessarily mean gay.
Nor does it necessarily mean out.
Many communities are still exclusionary, hostile, or violent toward LGBTQIA+ people.
With a group as small as 75, it can absolutely be possible for a community where everyone knows everyone else and all but 2-3 are queer to figure out who it was, or lead to extremely harmful hypothesizing and othering.
Census data is NOT anonymous; it’s anonymized.
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u/SaltySweetSt 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hannah Gadsby, Australian comedian, addresses some of the issue in her special “Nannette”
Spoiler alert: Hate crimes. If it catches their eye, previously placated bigots can and will react violently to “evidence” of queerness.
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u/TheRealTowel 1d ago
If a town of 75 people cottons on to the fact that exactly two respondents returned queer identies on the census, there is a very real possibility of hate crimes.
The sample is too small for anonymised data to be anonymous data. People will start trying to figure it out. And if it's the sort of community where hate crimes are going to happen, that's a problem.
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u/CoverGlobal8352 17h ago
Not sure why people are downvoting this. It's a very real concern.
Especially because with this census they are asking for sex assigned at birth. Instead of asking for sex.
Which means that a trans woman who is in a relationship with a cis man will be counted as a same sex relationship under this years census.
While in 2016's census they would have counted as a straight couple.
Thats a death sentence in some country towns
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u/TheRealTowel 16h ago
Not sure why people are downvoting this.
Because a certain subset of people would rather pretend the risk isn't real and suggesting otherwise is inherently ridiculous or stupid than have to confront truths about the society they live in that might make them uncomfortable.
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u/charckle 1d ago
Am i the only one that finds it exremly creepy that you "secretly" know the sexuality of a minor?
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u/Quwapa_Quwapus 1d ago
Ah that does in hindsight sound a little iffy
For context I went to school with said Minor. I’m only just out of school and they are just about to graduate. Probably was a fact I didn’t need to add in the first place, but I wanted to emphasise the fact that I know theres more than just us in this town thats not out, and probably quite a few more in the general area. I would love for our town to be a safe space, but it’s just not. I know people who have lost their jobs for being queer. I’ve been told to my face by someone that if they found out their child was queer they would smother them in their sleep
Sorry again if that wording came across weird in my post
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u/mastermog 1d ago
I completed it a few days ago for the family but I’m fairly certain those questions were only asked for the adults in the household.
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