Census questions are being changed to collect more information on ancestry, cultural and ethnic background and religion, the Australia Bureau of Statistics has announced.

The changes will come in before the 2026 Census and also include the collection of more information on a new topic of ‘sexual orientation and gender’ in the 2026 Census, for people aged 16 years and older.

Next year’s census will increase the number of ancestries collected from two to four to better reflect cultural diversity.

Questions about the country of birth of parents will be updated with the question designed to be more inclusive.

And there will an update of the question on religious affiliation.

The ABS says it will “update the question wording to ‘Does the person have a religion?’ and using a free text field for responses, rather than a pick list, to support accurate data collection and make the question more equitable”.

Questions about citizenship, country of birth and the main language used at home, other than English, proficiency of spoken English and date of arrival in Australia will not change.

The move follows criticism of the census that it does not capture enough information on diverse and marginalised communities.

And the changes are the result of a formal review process to determine the content changes for the 2026 Census.

“A large-scale Census Test is due to take place in August 2025 to ensure that the ABS has the processes in place to deliver a safe, secure and easy to complete Census in 2026,” the ABS said.

“The new topic of ‘Sexual orientation and gender’, for people aged 16 years and over will be added.

“The ABS is also developing the Census form that is used to collect data from people sleeping rough on Census night. The ABS will work closely with the ABS’ Homelessness Statistics Reference Group and service providers to undertake this work.

“The ABS will continue to work closely with organisations representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, LGBTIQ+ and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, people with disability, people experiencing homelessness and religious and secular groups to help inform communication, engagement and support materials to assist the public in completing the 2026 Census,” the ABS said.

The final questions for the 2026 Census will be published on the ABS website in late 2025. This will allow time to make refinements to the question wording following the Census Test, if required.