Thursday, August 11, 2011

Census time

The Australian census took place earlier this week- on Tuesday, August 9th. I don't recall ever filling out a census form in the US but they seem to be much more serious about it in Australia- everyone fills out the census form on a specific date, and everyone staying in your house that night goes on your form, even if they are just a visitor. And it's mandatory- you get fined if you don't complete it. Because I am a nerd, I was kind of excited about being part of the census. The questions were fairly standard, age, sex, marital status, a lot of questions on heritage (where you were born, where your parents were born, etc..) and employment, although some of the examples they gave made me laugh- "What type goods or services does your employer provide? Examples: hairdressing, sheep and wheat."
If you like looking at graphs, here are some census data- enjoy!

4 comments:

Kris said...

I found the occupations funny too. "WHAT CENTURY IS THIS?!" :)

eileen said...

I'm surprised they didn't have horse and buggy driver on there. Geez!

Kevin said...

So what happens if you have a one-night stand on census day? Could get awkward!

We did our UK census earlier this year and Karen forgot entirely about Leila! Whoops. It also asked what Leila's address was 1 year earlier, which we answered as "Karen's womb".

Caro said...

Did I ever told you a really like doing surveys? wierd