The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today welcomed the Australian Government’s announcement that the 2016 Census of Population and Housing will be held on Tuesday 9 August 2016.

With exactly one year to go until Australia’s 17th national Census, Australian Statistician David Kalisch said the ABS is making exciting changes to the way the Census is conducted in 2016.

“The 2016 Census will be the first Census in Australia’s history where we expect more people to complete online than on paper,” Mr Kalisch said.

“Over the past 100 years we have moved from using mechanical adding machines and calculators, and Census collectors travelling on horse or camel back, to transforming our Census operations in 2016 to take advantage of today’s digital world and connect with citizens in their online environments.

“Online login codes will be posted to the majority of households, replacing hand delivery and collection of forms by Census field staff.

“These new delivery and collection procedures aim to increase online participation, make the Census easier for households, and reduce costs for the taxpayer.

“We anticipate that more than 65 per cent of households will complete the Census online in 2016, positioning Australia as a world leader,” he said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is preparing to count close to 10 million dwellings and approximately 24 million people in Australia on Census night.

In 2016, the ABS will:

• Produce approximately 327 tonnes of less paper material than in the 2011 Census – equivalent to approximately 231 family sedans
• Travel 230,000 less kilometres to deliver household materials than in 2011 Census – equivalent to more than 5 trips around the circumference of the Earth (or 58 return trips between Sydney and Perth)
• Use 3,800 kilograms of ink and 16,000 litres of glue to produce household letters, envelopes and forms
• Mail 13.5 million letters to households and establishments across Australia
• Count all of Australia’s 10 million dwellings and 24 million people
• Employ around 39,000 temporary field staff across a variety of roles, including up to 500 people to process the data
• Scan paper forms as they arrive using industrial scanners operating 12 hours per day, 5 days per week, over 10 weeks, scanning close to 88 million pages
• Produce and publish over 3 trillion cells of data as a result of the information collected in the Census