Half Australian households have completed the 2016 Census more than a week after its launch
Just over half of Australian households have participated in the national Census so far after its launch more than a week ago.
ALMOST half of Australian households are still yet to complete the national Census, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed today, more than a week after Census night.
The government agency stressed there was “still time” to complete the five-yearly survey and apologised “again to everyone for the inconvenience caused on Census night” when its online platform was taken offline for more than 40 hours after being inundated with requests.
The new figures come after former ABS chief Bill McLennan warned there would be “severe doubts” about the quality of information collected from the questionnaire if just 10 per cent of households failed to participate.
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ABS Census Program head Duncan Young said “more than half of Australian households” had now completed the 2016 Census, putting the figure at more than five million homes.
Mr Young said the website had “been performing smoothly” since the lengthy outage following its August 9 official launch and urged more Australians to use the website.
“If you have not completed the Census, we remind you to complete it as soon as possible,” he said.
“Your information is safe and you won’t be fined for completing it after Census night, but it is important to complete the form either online or in paper as soon as possible.”
Just 2.33 million Australian households completed the Census online before the site was taken down last Tuesday, indicating it has taken more than a week for the same number to log on and complete the questionnaire since the failed launch.
By comparison, more than 2.6 million Australian households completed the Census online in 2011 when the service remained available throughout Census night.
In addition to advertising to remind Australians to try the website again, ABS has employed 38,000 field officers to visit homes and remind residents to complete the survey, which is used to plan infrastructure and government policy in Australia.
Australians have been asked to complete the Census by September 23.
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