Tomorrow is Census Day for Australia
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (326601)
Rockingham, Australia
August 9, 2021 8:31am CST
The photo has nothing to do with the post.
Tomorrow is Census Day for Australia. It is a big deal here with quite large fines for not filling in the forms. Most people got their forms in the mail but because our mail is still being redirected, we haven’t received anything. So we did ours online tonight. Mostly, it simply involved ticking boxes.
Of course, the questions led to a lot of banter. One asked for our marital status. The choices were something like ‘never married, married, divorced, de facto relationship’ and there might have been another one that I’ve forgotten. However, we thought there should have been a tick box for ‘strained’. Then we were asked if we had worked in the last week but there wasn’t a box for ‘not likely’. Anyway, filling out the forms filled in a pleasant half hour.
Have you had to fill in census forms recently?
30 people like this
30 responses
@anya12adwi (6053)
• India
10 Aug 21
Our census is supposed to happen this year!! No idea, if it is going to be conducted or not!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (326601)
• Rockingham, Australia
15 Aug 21
@anya12adwi No, it used to be delivered by hand but now you can do it online as well.
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@anya12adwi (6053)
• India
12 Aug 21
@JudyEv Ours is every 10 years! It is good way that they mail you the questionnaire.. Do they always mail you the questionnaire?
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@anya12adwi (6053)
• India
15 Aug 21
@JudyEv That's quite time-saving and efficient way!! Here, the form is given to NGOs and school teachers.. They collect the data from door to door which I feel is very tasking and uncomfortable work!
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@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
10 Aug 21
We do a census every ten years. I filled out the last one (in 2020) online.
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@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
10 Aug 21
@JudyEv I hate filling them out but I know they are necessary.
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@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
10 Aug 21
@JudyEv Always questions Pretty and I feel are simply nosy, too.
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@JudyEv (326601)
• Rockingham, Australia
10 Aug 21
@DaddyEvil This one was particularly onerous. Pretty simple, basic questions.
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@JudyEv (326601)
• Rockingham, Australia
10 Aug 21
@FayeHazel It's hard to know but there were probably less employed in handing out the paper copies.
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@FayeHazel (40246)
• United States
10 Aug 21
@JudyEv Probably so, though maybe there is more need for people working in IT and the like ? Probably not enough to make up for it though
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@JudyEv (326601)
• Rockingham, Australia
10 Aug 21
It's compulsory here with heavy fines for those not filling out the forms. That doesn't mean that some don't answer honestly.
@xFiacre (12499)
• Ireland
9 Aug 21
@judyev Earlier this year here. I also filled in my father’s on his behalf partly because it was beyond him and partly because there was a question asking if one was straight or gay. Although it was an optional question I thought it best not to trouble him and have to explain.
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@JudyEv (326601)
• Rockingham, Australia
10 Aug 21
Ours didn't ask that and it also only gave male, female options. They will cop a bit of flak over that! 
@MarshaMusselman (38723)
• Midland, Michigan
9 Aug 21
Not recently but that reminds me I have a business one too fill out for how chicos impacted our business.
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@MarshaMusselman (38723)
• Midland, Michigan
11 Aug 21
@JudyEv that must be nice.
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@oahuwriter (26778)
• United States
10 Aug 21
Ours was last year. Like you, I did mine online. Public service announcement, let you know, federal dollars for Hawaii depends on our filling census, to inspire everyone to file census report.
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@oahuwriter (26778)
• United States
11 Aug 21
@JudyEv
Indeed! It was easy to do online.
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@DocAndersen (54407)
• United States
10 Aug 21
we do in the US every 10 years (as mandated in the Constitution). It is interesting, and happily, they took out the "are you a US Citizen" box!
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@DocAndersen (54407)
• United States
10 Aug 21
@JudyEv they did ask that on the US 2020 census form, but the updated form removed that citizen ship question.
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@S4mmyboy (3266)
• Mumbai, India
10 Aug 21
Glad that you could update it online.
Census in our country is not like it would finish off in just day..... It is over a period of a month.... The local municipal bodies are assigned to visit each and every household and note it down.
The figures would never be perfect. Chances of manipulation are there.
I wish something like that should be introduced in our country, but I don't think that it would happen.
BTW what does de facto relationship mean?
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@JudyEv (326601)
• Rockingham, Australia
10 Aug 21
It takes them weeks to distribute the forms. Some are still paper forms as not everyone has computers but we are all supposed to fill them in on a particular day.
De facto means living together as husband and wife but not being married.
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@ThatDisha (4010)
• India
10 Aug 21
It's good that you can do it only
here in India doing census is a huge task and the government employees have to spend day and night going door to door for taking the census and even some people do not cooperate with them and sometimes hide some of the information
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@changjiangzhibin89 (16559)
• China
10 Aug 21
It is great you can do it online ! Sounds like ticking boxes were a breeze.
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@JESSY3236 (19057)
• United States
10 Aug 21
I had done mine last year. I mailed it in.
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) or forms so I went for birds. 
@aninditasen (15804)
• Raurkela, India
10 Aug 21
We don't have to in India. The people from the census board come to our houses to collect information.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (326601)
• Rockingham, Australia
10 Aug 21
Some people received their forms in the mail. We will probably get ours next week as we have moved house and the mail is being redirected.
@LindaOHio (158582)
• United States
10 Aug 21
Love the photo. We had our census last year; and we were able to take care of it online too.
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