The ABS reveals how many Australians have filled in the Census as delays continue

A CENSUS collector says they “risk being seen as total chumps” as delays continue. How many Aussies have actually done it?

Head of Census Duncan Young, predicts five million households will use census server this year

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THE Australian Bureau of Statistics has given its first indication of how the embarrassing failure of the IBM-built server on Census night has impacted on the number of Australians who this year will pass on paper and file online.

Head of the Census Duncan Young yesterday said more than seven million households, equating to 80 per cent of Australian households, had submitted their census forms.

“Sixty two per cent of forms have been filled in online so far, compared to a total of 33 per cent five years ago,” Mr Young said.

That percentage figure for successful online submissions could yet be adjusted down after all census forms are collected.

Mr Young yesterday predicted that two million more households would complete their Census online this year compared to in 2011.

Given 2.7 million Census forms were filed electronically five years ago, an extra two million on top of that would equate to about five million households or 50 to 55 per cent of Australian households.

Sandy Creek Hotel manager Luke Somerville tried to complete his Census at work after not being able to on the night when it crashed. Picture: Calum Robertson

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed delays in processing Census forms had resulted in people receiving a visit from a census field officer despite having filed their form.

Several Census field officers contacted News Corporation to report the problem which is adding to the confusion of the census collection process.

The Census website when it was shut down on the night. Picture: Supplied

“New updated data is meant to be uploaded each day and as the residences get processed at ABS headquarters then our workload gets progressively smaller,” one Census field officer, who requested his name not be used, said.

“Many folk have advised us that they have filled out and posted back their forms a week or more back but this information has not flowed through to staff in the field.

Australian Statistician David Kalisch who has been under pressure after the Census fail. Picture: Kym Smith

“We are also getting reports of people who say they have filled out Census online and this is not updated on our apps.

“We risk being seen as total chumps with bad PR for the ABS and we are also wasting time and money.

“Since our contract was for a set number of hours it now looks like we will exceed those so costing taxpayers more than necessary. “

Mr Young admitted there were cases where households who had already completed the Census still received a visit from a field officer.

“Visits to households that have taken part can happen for a variety of reasons, but commonly is due to the time it takes between completed paper forms being posted back and being registered at our secure Data Capture Centre,” he said.

Australians have until September 23 to file their census forms online.