Australian Government 'May Axe the Census'

According to reports in the Australian media, Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government is considering canning the country's census, and replacing it with a smaller sample survey.

Initially launched in 1911, the census is used to survey every Australian household, once every five years. The government has been preparing for its next survey - the first to go paperless - for the past seven years, but there are now suggestions it wants to shelve the census because of its $AUD 440m+ price tag. Australia's Bureau of Statistics is required by law to conduct the census every five years, so any change would require new legislation.

When asked directly by the Sydney Morning Herald whether the 2016 census would go ahead in August, a spokeswoman for the government dodged a direct response by reading the following statement: 'The government and the Bureau of Statistics are consulting with a wide range of stakeholders about the best methods to deliver high quality, accurate and timely information on the social and economic condition of Australian households.'

In the UK, the coalition government announced plans to abandon its census five years ago, but after an enquiry it was agreed that the next census will go ahead in March 2021. Last year, Britain's National Statistician recommended to the Board of the UK Statistics Authority that the country's ten-year census be retained, but moved online from its previously paper-based format. The UK Statistics Authority is currently involved in a research initiative called the Census Transformation Programme to investigate a range of alternative options to conducting the next UK-wide census.